What It Means To Be A Hero
by That Chess Guy
Summary: Jaune Arc has always wanted to be a hero since he could walk. But what does it mean to be a hero? This question follows him to Beacon Academy where his skills are tested not only as a huntsmen, but also as a friend.
1. Prologue

**Prologue:**

The moon assaulted the quiet forest with its luminescent shine. Eerie shadows plagued the forest floor and shrouded the numerous trees in darkness. Crickets chirped filling the forest with shrilling sounds that battered the peaceful complex of the night. However, slashes given off from a sword cut straight through the uneventful night. The occasional yell accompanied the slashes which would silence any kind of noise that was made in the forest.

Jaune held his sword in front of him while taking in a deep breath. His exhausted look was partially subdued by the determination that was etched onto his face. He slowly exhaled and opened his eyes fully. Taking a strong step forward, he brought his sword up over his shoulder and pushed himself into the air with a bounce. His whole body flew and he quickly swung the sword from his shoulder across the area in front of him. Chunks of bark and wood splintered through the air as the tree in front of him shook from the blow.

Jaune landed haphazardly on his feet and stumbled forward in exhaustion, resting a hand on the now scarred tree for support. His legs shook violently until he was forced onto his knees by fatigue. He had been out here for over six hours and hadn't even realized it until now. When he had came to this outcropping to train, it hadn't been a concern of his to keep track on how much time he spent away from his home, but now that he was exhausted, it came full circle. He sighed knowing he was going to get a lecture from his mother about how irresponsible he had acted in staying out this long.

But as he thought about the possible excuses he could make up to cover up for him being late, he heard twigs snapping behind him. His fatigue forgotten, he bolted upright and readied his sword; he held it in the direction he had heard the noise and he slowed his breath as to not draw any more attention to himself. He mentally cursed himself for being so stupid for making so much noise before. The snappings came closer and closer and Jaune tensed waiting for something to emerge into the outcropping; his breaths became more rigged and his arms shook softly with anticipation.

The snaps seemed to be right on top of him and a form broke into the clearing from the absurdly dark treeline. He raised his sword and was about to charge at his aggressor until the obscured figure spoke in a feminine voice,

"What do you think you're doing out here, Jaune?"

Jaune's grip on the hilt of his practice sword loosened and his shoulders slumped bringing the sword lazily to his side. His sister came into the light that was illuminating the clearing looking pissed off. At that point, Jaune had kind of wished that would have been a Grimm instead of her. Her tall frame and glaring blue eyes made him want to run for high hell just to escape her wrath.

"...I'm ju-," he sighed, "I'm just practicing, Catherine."

He broke her gaze, sheathed his sword, and turned back around to lean on the destroyed tree feeling even more tired than before. Catherine continued towards him with her fists balled up and nose flaring.

"Do ya know how long you have been away for?!"

Jaune continued to avert her gaze and looked down to the swaying grass. Catherine wasn't just intimidating from how tall she was or by the way she carried herself. No, she was intimidating in a whole other way. A whole other _scarier_ way: her stare. Nothing ever escaped being intimidated by that sight and if they aren't intimidated by it, then they should be. Catherine was about to become a full fledged huntress in the next year and she was a force to be reckoned with, and the Vytal Tournament last year proved that.

"Well?" She forcefully asked looking down at Jaune, who she was now towering over. He pushed his head farther down in a desperate attempt to avoid confrontation. She finally sighed after getting no response and crouched down to get to eye level with Jaune.

Darkened clouds floated overhead and the forest was completely silent. It seemed like the only living things in the forest was them given the absence of sound.

"Jaune," she said in a soft tone, "Why are you out here?" Her change in demeanor made Jaune look up and come into eye contact with his big sister. He shuffled around his foot until he responded,

"I already said why. I was practic—"

She quickly cut him off, "—No...why are you out here?"

He made a confused look and simply stared at Catherine. There was no ulterior motive to what he was doing; he was simply training by himself. Nothing more. Nothing less. He broke her gaze once again and looked down at his feet. Catherine craned her neck shifted down as to meet his gaze again.

"Jaune?" Her voice pierced his ears and her words bounced around in his head. She sighed, "Is it because of dad?"

His shoulders slumped and his head dropped lower than before. Catherine quickly picked up on these queues and her heart halted, terrified by what could have been done this time.

Her voice hardened with resentment, "What did he do this time?"

Jaune stood still and didn't dare look up; he didn't want to see his sister angry because of him. He brought on these types of actions from his father, it's not like he didn't deserve them. His father was totally justified in what he did… he was definitely justified.

"Jaune?" He didn't look up, still in his own world. "Look at me," Catherine said taking his face in her hand, turning him so he would look at her finally.

She gasped at what she saw: Jaune's left eye was swollen shut and purple, a little blood seeped from the bruise covering his left cheek. His eyes—or eye for that matter—had tears welling up in the corner of it. She had known something had happened when her father had drunkenly stormed into the house and started yelling at the top of his lungs about Juane being a disgrace.

"That son of a bitch," she muttered under her breath and quickly sat him done on the ground. She took her sleeve and cleaned the blood from the spot her dad had hit Jaune. He recoiled to her touching his wound but she wiped his face anyways. She pulled back her hand and softly took his hand wrapping her fingers around her little brother's.

She hated the fact that she was helpless to him; she couldn't possibly stand up to her father—nobody could—not her, not her mom, and definitely none of her sisters. This was out of her hands.

A soft breeze blew through the forest, pushing leaves back and forth creating a soft rustling. The forest was comforting, she understood why Jaune would come out here so much. Everything was so comforting…

…

"Jaune?"

Catherine looked down at his sitting form, watching as he sniffled now and again.

"Jaune? Look at me." She repeated herself. His head at first didn't budge and she didn't think it would, but he surprised her and looked up at her with his non-swollen eye.

"He doesn't do this because of you."

…

…

"This isn't your fault."

His lip trembled and a sob racked his body. Jaune's grip on her hand tightened.

Catherine dove forward and pushed his head into her shoulder, wrapping her arms around him. He broke down crying into her jacket and stained her shoulder in tears. She didn't care though; this was her brother, and he needed someone to cry on, which just so happened to be her. She wanted to always be there for him, but her work wasn't going to allow for that. He was going to need to understand that these things weren't because of him and were out of his control. He needed to know that before she left to be a full time huntress.

"This isn't your fault."

* * *

Jaune burst awake in a cold sweat, gasping for air. It felt like someone had punched him right in the gut. His breath was rigged and he hung his head recollecting on what he had just dreamed about. His head swam until he was able to piece together what exactly he had just experienced: it was one of the last memories of his sister before she went off to fight hordes of Grimm seven years ago.

He remembered that night and all of what happened: the forest, his anger, his sadness, his fath—…

...Shaking off the distant memory, he got out of bed and stretched out his back. Feeling pretty hungry, he grabbed the white t-shirt at the end of his bed, threw it on, and pushed his way out the door to his dorm. The hallway he came into was lit by the the sun breaking through the window at the end of the hall and he had to partly shield his eyes from the light.

He was never a morning person and that seemed to show. His hair was parted in every which way, his eyes had bags under them, and his feet dragged across the ground.

He made his way down the expanse of rooms until he reached the end where the door that led to the stairs was on his right. His dorm building had only one kitchen and it was on the very bottom floor, which wasn't ideal but it served its purpose.

Jaune's mother had made his dream of becoming a huntsmen a reality years ago when she had saved up enough money to send him to a decent combat school a ways away from Vale. He had trained here for three years and would be leaving soon for Beacon Academy, the place he had wanted to go to since he could walk and when he had been accepted he flipped out. He would be studying and fighting alongside some of the best students Sanus had to offer and that fact alone made him pumped up, albeit a bit nervous, but still happy as hell.

An airship would be leaving for Beacon later today, and he would be getting on it as a student of the most prestigious schools in all of Remnant.

* * *

Jaune through his head into a trash can that was near the exit of the airship and vomited. He had always had a problem with motion sickness and the constant shaking of the aircraft didn't exactly help with his problem.

A static sound came over the intercom of the ship and a feminine voice spoke, "We are now arriving at Beacon Academy." The message ended and the shuffling of people making their way towards the exit could be heard.

He pulled his head from the inside of the trashcan still feeling nauseated and turned to the sea of people filing towards him.

 _Oh shit_ was all he could mutter before he was being shoved down and to the side by the rowdy crowd. He covered his head to try and avoid being kicked in the head, but to no avail, so he started crawling his way back towards the seats of the ship. He kept crawling until he felt the feeling of claustrophobia disappear and opened his eyes to see he was finally out of the massive group.

"Hey, vomit-boy." His attention was attracted by the female voice above him. He looked forward and was greeted by a pair of brown boots—and then he looked up…

One of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen was staring down at him. She had long blond hair that went down to her waist and… a couple other features that really stood out to him. Her lilac eyes gazed down on him and were accompanied by a sheepish smirk.

Jaune didn't move to get up and just kept staring up gawking. The girl scoffed and spoke to him again, "Hey—you just going to lay there staring at me or are of going to get up?"

He composed himself and bolted upright. He didn't know who this girl was but his years of experience with the ladies told him just how to handle this situation:

"Hey—what's up? Name's Jaune Arc and your name is?" He said putting on his cool facade.

The girl rolled her eyes and responded, "Yang, look I have your—"

"—well Yang, I don't know if you know this but I'm what they called a master swordsman and specialized lady killer back where I'm from so—"

"—I'm going to stop you right there," Yang said with a half lidded look, "I just saw you beeline to a trashcan so that you could vomit in it and then shortly after that go into the fetal position and crawl out of a crowd, so the only thing that I can see you killing is your reputation, not the ladies."

Jaune deadpanned and looked dumbfounded for a moment before snapping his finger and pointing at Yang. "Fair enough. It was worth a shot."

Yang shifted and displayed the things she was carrying. "I saw you leave these in your seat after you ran to go vomit and thought I might come give you them since we're getting off here."

She held up a black duffle bag that Jaune promptly took recognizing it as his own. He shifted the bag over his shoulder so it would be easier to carry and then looked to her other hand.

"And… this," she said taking a moment to gaze at the giant broadsword. His sword. Hanging of the end of the hilt was a pendant displaying the Arc symbol while the hilt itself was made of leather and steel. His eyes worked up to the actual blade that made up the majority of his weapon. For the most part, the inside of the blade was made up of whitened steel, but that wasn't the only thing making up its expanse. A sharpened, shock crystal made up the edges of his blade.

Jaune grabbed the sword and leather sheath and put the strap attached to the pair over his shoulder as well. Jaune shifted due to the uncomfortable amount of weight on his shoulder, but thanked Yang all the same for grabbing his things.

"No problem, vomit-boy. I'll see ya around," she said going around him and walking towards the exit.

And with that, Jaune was left on the now emptied airship. Shrugging, he figured he should probably follow the crowd now heading towards the school. He lightly jogged out the exit and had to shield his eyes from the rays of light hitting his face. When his eyes finally adjusted to the light, his mouth was instantly agape. The CCT and the other building all making up Beacon Academy stood in front of him in all their splendor.

"I've finally made it," Jaune said to himself taking his first steps into a new stage of his life.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Hey, what's up? Thank you for reading my first story. It's like midnight, so I don't have a lot to say, but I'll say like two or three things:

The tone of this chapter is not consistent. I know it's not and I can understand how that could be sort of distracting, but understand that this was only done because it was the introduction and I needed to get some necessary stuff out. Speaking of distracting, the point of view thing I did in the beginning where its omniscient seemed a bit ugly, so I'll be working on and experimenting with POVs for the first few chapters to see what I like and don't like. And also, my writing probably has _a lot_ of errors, so any feedback on where I incorrectly english-ed is definitely appreciated.

So yeah, that all I really have to say. Thank you for reading my first attempt at writing.


	2. Inspired

**Inspired:**

Night had set over Beacon Academy and all the activity that had been there during the day was dwindled down to the occasional night owl. Street lights illuminated the barren walkways crisscrossing the area and the trees scattered around swayed in the breeze. The only commotion on campus was emerging from the main building of Beacon where the new, first-year students were made to stay for their first night.

The main hall was alive with students talking to each other about different topics ranging from weapons to personal issues. Some were already settling down to go to sleep, conscience about the energy that would be needed for the initiation the next day.

Everyone was anxious, whether a little or a lot, about what the initiation would be. There were rumors already circulating around the congregation of students and each one was absolutely horrifying to Jaune. He could overhear a trio of guys next to him talking about what they had heard.

"I heard they are gonna make us fight horde after horde of Death Stalkers," the first guy whispered.

 _Ah jeez, I've never fought a Death Stalker._

"Well I heard one guy say that they are going to make multiple groups of students fight each other to the death so the weak would be weaned out," the guy sitting next to him said.

 _Sounds a bit extreme._

The last guy in the group finally gave his input on the conversation, "Uh…," he hesitated before continuing, "I think I heard one of the professors talking about how they were planning on launching us into Emerald Forest and making us hunt down chess pieces that we would have to return to them."

The two friends who spoke first just stared at the last guy with untelling expressions. The two guys looked at each other before one of them spoke up,

"That… is the _stupidest_ thing I've heard come out of anyone's mouth, Kyle."

His friend nodded in agreement, "Yeah! Why are you such an idiot, Kyle?"

Juane decided to tune out the guys after hearing them start to drone off about something or another. He was too paranoid to think clearly and he had to support his head with his heads to keep from becoming too light-headed. This was all too stressful and made him seriously regret thinking he could make it at Beacon.

His old school wasn't known for its prestige and taught him essentially nothing more than what his sister and his fa…

…

Nothing more than what his sister had taught him. Consequently, he knew his fighting ability was not on par with many of these aspiring huntsmen and huntresses. And to add salt to the wound, he didn't have his semblance unlocked. It wasn't like he hadn't tried—he had tried a lot actually—it just had never appeared. Maybe it was because of his lack of consistent training when he was younger? Maybe if he had been conditioned more, then he would have it unlocked and could compare to these fighters?

 _Why am I here_ was the only thing going through Jaune's mind. He didn't deserve to be here; there were better students who more qualified to have gotten in. The board who picked students for Beacon did see that he was an average student from a below average school, right?

Before he could think of these types of thoughts any longer, he heard footsteps approaching him. Initially he brushed it off as just another student walking to their sleeping bags or to the washroom, but he noticed that instead of the usual sound of footsteps pattering away, he heard nothing after the footsteps had approached him.

Confused, he looked up and was greeted by a familiar pair of lilac eyes staring back at him.

"Hey," Yang greeted standing over him. The confident look that he had seen her with earlier that day was still plastered across her face and it was intimidating as hell.

Since she had caught him off guard and interrupted his train of thought, he wasn't able to form any other response than a simple 'hi', which wasn't like him.

Yang was quick to respond though, eliminating any awkward silence that could occur, "So I saw you were alone over here and I got confused because I thought you claimed to be a chick magnet?" She jabbed at his comment from this morning.

Jaune pushed his previous thoughts to the side and resolved to talk to Yang. "Nononono—see you don't understand," Jaune shifted towards his duffle bag and opened it, "The only reason the girls aren't all crowded around me is because I'm not wearing my bachelor suit."

Yang's smirk instantly changed into a confused look. "Your bachelor suit?"

Jaune dug through his things until he found what he wanted. He gripped the soft fabric and yanked the clothing out of the bag to display to Yang.

Almost instantaneously, Yang snorted at what he pulled out of his bag. Then her snort went into a full blown laugh and she gasped between bouts of laughter, "You...—have… a… **onesie**?"

Jaune smiled at her comment and came up with an instant response, "Girls love the onesie… and it's also comfortable, so it's a win-win in my book."

Yang eventually stopped laughing long enough for her to get out a clear sentence, "If I were you, I would probably burn that thing before anyone sees it. Just my advice."

Jaune shoved the comfortable sleepwear back into his bag and shifted it off his lap and back to the side of his sleeping bag.

The atmosphere of the inside of the building had died down quite a bit since Jaune had last checked and he could see multiple people sleeping and others about to be the same way. Some of the candles that were lighting the hall had been blown out and concealed areas in darkness. Overall, the paranoia that had been rampant just a couple of minutes ago and devolved into a soft environment that was rather comforting.

Jaune turned his head back up to face Yang again and asked the question that was nagging at him since she said "hey" to him, "Why did you come over here and talk to me? It couldn't have been just to tell me I'm not a womanizer?"

Yang shrugged and said, "Like I said—you looked lonely."

Jaune wasn't buying it and he made that apparent when he scrunched up his face at her comment.

Yang looked at him again and saw his face then sighed. She looked like she was contemplating an answer in her head that didn't involve him being lonely.

After a couple seconds, she responded, "You looked like you had a lot on your mind," she continued, "With all the talk about initiation, it can be stressful. And I know this because I was feeling the same way when I heard the first rumor about what could happen. It's scary to think about. So—I thought you could need someone to talk to and you seemed like a fairly nice guy on the airship… despite the fact that you hit on me." She continued to smirk at Jaune looking at his mind make sense of what he was just told.

Jaune nodded along before commenting with a smirk, "You get scared?"

Yang scrunched up her face. "Yeah? Is it unreasonable to be scared?" She asked with some hostility in her voice.

Jaune hadn't wanted to offend this girl. She had come over after all to see if he needed company, which was pretty nice on her behalf.

Jaune shook his head, "No—it's just," he looked at her directly, "You don't seem like the type to get scared at stuff."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

Jaune panicked for a second about how to respond. "I mean… you look strong."

That sounded weird now that he had said it outloud. In his head, it sounded like a pretty reasonable response, but now that it was out there, it seemed a bit creepy to say.

Yang looked at him with confusion before responding, "Thanks."

Jaune decided, before it got awkward, to hit on a point Yang had brought up earlier in their conversation, "Why are you scared though?"

Yang looked down in contemplation not knowing how to respond. After several seconds, she perked back up and laid out her reasoning for him,

"Because my ass isn't the only one that I have to worry about out there—my sister will be out there as well," she looked out towards the expanse of sleeping bags and people, "Most of these people don't know each other, and if the time should come tomorrow, would probably ditch any one of these others to further themselves. So I'm not just talking about Grimm when I say I'll be looking out for her out there tomorrow, but from the students that would harm her for selfish reasons."

Jaune stared in admiration at Yang. He had pinned her as a person who was concerned with just herself, which was just based on her looks. He disgusted himself that he would think that way now knowing that she was just the opposite. She wasn't scared for selfish reasons… she was scared because of her compassion for her sister.

A silence fell in between the two, and during this, Yang seemed to notice the influx of people gravitating towards their sleeping bags and decided that she should do the same and started her way over back to her own.

But before she could make it far, Jaune called to her, "Hey, Yang."

"Hm?" She turned back to face him.

…

"Thank you," he said staring at her, "That actually really helped me get my mind off things."

She smiled, "Don't sweat it...Jauney-boy."

She had expected him to smile at the name given that he had done the same at every one of her teasing jabs, but instead his face turned pale. It looked like a ghost had possessed him and had drained him of all color. He looked down slightly before commenting in a low voice,

"Don't call me that."

Yang looked confused at the comment. "What?" She asked due to the weirdness of the request.

Jaune continued to look down slightly. "Just—please… you can call me vomit-boy or anything else, but… just not that."

An awkward silence took place after that and Yang felt uneasy about why he had taken this nickname so personal and not the other ones. Maybe it had to do with some personal issue, but whatever it was, it obviously deeply upset him.

Feeling bad, Yang quickly apologized, "Sorry—I didn't mean to offend you."

Jaune snapped out of his stupor and felt sort of bad for making someone who had just went out of her way to make sure he was alright feel bad. "Don't worry about it… you just… just stick to vomit-boy from now on."

Yang's smile returned, "Alright...—vomit-boy."

He smiled at the comment and watched her as she walked back to her sleeping bag. He had needed that. Something to get his mind off of things. His body was sort of relaxed now and he laid down on his sleeping bag feeling genuinely tired now instead of being paranoid. He turned on his side and blew out his candle, which darkened the area around him.

Before he drifted off to sleep, a thought that made him laugh had crossed his mind:

He had made his first friend at Beacon.

* * *

" **GET UP!** "

Jaune's eyes shot open at an indescribable speed because of the booming voice filling the gigantic room with piercing sound. Many of the students that had been sleeping were now awake just like Jaune, and also like Jaune, were covering their ears as what he figured to be a professor marched down the aisle of sleeping bags and yelled at the top of his lungs.

The man in a red suit reeled his head back again and shouted another command, " **GET UP WITH HASTE CHILDREN—YOU ALL WILL NEED TO BE AT THE DOCK IN THE NEXT HOUR TO CATCH AN AIRSHIP THAT TAKE YOU TO YOUR INITIATION!** "

Jaune shot up from his sleeping bag, grabbing his duffle bag and started rushing to the locker room to get changed. But in doing this, he also noticed it wasn't even close to morning yet. He went over to the nearest window and looked out to see where the moon was and had to strain his neck directly up to finally see that it was still not even halfway to dawn. Checking his scroll to check himself and see if he was wrong, he was quickly greeted by "12:38 A.M." which made him confused.

Something wasn't adding up: the students that he had overheard had talked about initiation being first thing in the morning, not in the middle of the night. Had he missed something? Before he could ask around, a wave of panicked students barged towards the locker room to change into their combat gear. All of them seemed to have the same confusion induced look that he had, which comforted him slightly, while also making him afraid because while it was relieving to know that everyone was on the same page as him, it was concerning to see that _no one_ was aware of what was going on.

The now noise filled room was hysteric and made the professor have to yell even louder than before to get out his statement, " **ANYONE WHO IS NOT AT THE DOCK IN THAT HOUR WILL BE LEFT AND ASKED TO LEAVE PROMPTLY! THE CLOCK STARTS NOW!** "

And with that, he made his way to the giant doors that led to the main part of campus.

Jaune's mind was rampant with questions. Why was it midnight and not morning? Why had they only been allowed two hours of sleep? What were they going to do at night for initiation?

All of these questions was making Jaune go mad and he decided to push them to the side for now. He assumed that the sooner he got to the landing dock, the sooner he would have his answers. So he pushed his way through the crowd and made towards the locker room.

The commotion was horrendous and many seemed like they were just yelling for the hell of it. It was aggravating to have to listen to the people next to you shove you and then proceed to scream in your ear.

Jaune was eventually able to be pushed along by the crowd into the locker room and he rushed to his locker trying to quickly get on his gear. The commotion of the horde bounced around cement walls and made Jaune want to get to his locker even quicker just to escape the ambience.

Rounding a corner formed by lockers, Jaune found the locker number he had been given the day before, looked at the code, and was quick to punch it in. In response to the correct sequence of numbers, the locker's lock mechanism turned the green and swung open.

He gazed at the contents inside and took a deep breath. Before him was his sword and his scraps of armor. This was going to be his first official test as a Beacon student and by taking the sheath his sword was in, he would be taking a leap towards becoming an official huntsmen. There would be no backing out after this.

He closed his eyes, took in another deep breath and exhaled slowly. His mind zeroed in on a memory from years ago.

" _I can't fight for shit!" Jaune yelled throwing his practice sword down in frustration. His sister had beaten him yet again in sparring with him; this had been the tenth time today alone and it was beginning to become demeaning._

 _Catherine looked at him not in anger or frustration by his repetitive action of throwing his sword and saying he couldn't do it, but in sympathy. She knew it was hard to fight given that he had only started training at age ten while most aspiring huntsmen and huntresses started sparring at seven. But he needed to realize nothing was going to be easy in the life of a huntsmen and that was a brutal truth._

 _She walked over to him and kneeled down in front of him. "Pick up your sword, Jaune," she said sliding it across the ground so that it was closer to him._

 _He hid behind his hair and looked down at the ground, which seemed to be a recurring theme for him when he didn't want to talk._

 _That didn't stop Catherine from trying to make him pick it back up though. Sighing, she put a hand on his shoulder._

" _Look_ — _Jaune… I know this is hard and you don't feel any better from when you started… but you need to listen to me. Are you listening?" She paused and waited until his head slowly nodded, "It's okay to not do well at first, and it is somewhat expected...so you need to stop beating yourself up and realize you're not going to be perfect. People make mistakes. But you know what?" She didn't wait for him to respond, "I… I know it seems hard right now, but Jaune_ —… _if you keep this up, you'll be one hell of a huntsmen when you grow older," Catherine said looking at him with a smile._

 _Jaune's head lifted at her words, feeling motivated again. Catherine's smile hardened and she got to her feet again._

 _She got into position again and readied herself, "Now pick up your sword."_

Jaune looked at his weapon. It was the last thing in his locker since he had already put on his clothes and armor while remembering his sister's training. He took one more deep breath before grabbing the sheath and throwing it over his shoulder.

He was ready for whatever came next.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

There's lots to talk about, so getting started, the reception to my first chapter was _freaking awesome_ , and I love everyone who gave this story even a glance. I'm also very appreciative to all the follows, favorites, and reviews that were given to this story. Thank you all!

Now onto my story. This chapter was originally also going to have the first part of the initiation, but that went on for a bit longer than I would've really liked and I wanted to have one more chapter before getting into more plot relevant things like battles and meeting more characters that are canon. And I also wanted to allot a little more time to at least slightly flesh out Jaune's character before throwing more characters into the mix. But do expect a chapter that does include a little action next and is probably in the range of 4k+ words.

I also obviously changed up the initiation drill from its original form. At first, I didn't want to do this because it seemed a bit weird to change up a very defining moment from the show, but I felt that it was way too similar at that point and I wanted to do something unique. So yeah, that'll be explained further in the next chapter, which should come out in the next few days since I'll have more time to write with Thanksgiving being right around the corner and having no more exams.

I'm still figuring out Jaune's sword name so that might be dropped in the next few chapters. There's got to be an optimal time to drop its name, so I'm just waiting for that moment.

Finally, thank you all again! It's awesome to know that some people are actually enjoying my writing or are just curious about my story.

And with that, I think I'm done talking.


	3. No Good Deed (Initiation: Part 1)

**No Good Deed**

 **(Initiation: Part I):**

Jaune's hands were sweaty as the engine of the airship roared to life and ascended into the air. Him, along with several other students that has gotten on this particular airship, all had the same confusion and worry plastered on their faces. Not a single professor had said anything about what was happening or why initiation was happening in the middle of the night. Nothing. Not a single word.

Jaune had rushed to the platform the second he had thrown on all of his stuff like the rest of the students and had been grouped together with an arbitrary set of students. Them, like the rest of the groups, were shoved onto an airship that was assigned to their group. When getting on the ship, a man had tied a yellow ribbon to their arms and they had been instructed to not take these off until initiation had ended. Jaune had noticed that the other groups of students had also had these ribbons tied around their arms, but only theirs had been colors other than yellow.

There was also something else that had caught Jaune's eye when looking at his ribbon: there was a Beringel's face depicted on it. The one red eye that looked at him filled him with dread. There was something about a Grimm that, no matter how many he fought, he could never get over: their eyes horrified him. The way they glowed red made his heart skip a beat in fear. He pulled his eyes away from the image trying to find comfort in knowing who was a part of his group.

His eyes scanned the seats that were in the cockpit until he stopped on an interesting looking girl who was fidgeting with her weapon, which was something he couldn't make out since it looked to be in its compact form. Her hair was dark and it looked like there were red highlights on the end of her locks. Her legs barely reached the ground from her sitting in an airship seat. She didn't look seventeen, but he didn't know her story and anyone who was younger than seventeen and got into Beacon must be a force to be reckoned with, so who was he to judge.

Yeah, he shouldn't be judging someone's ability as a fighter when he wasn't anything special himself. Even though he wasn't _horrible,_ he definitely wasn't going to catch any professor's eye with his swordsmanship. Maybe it was the fact that a broadsword had been foreign to him for most of his life. He had only picked up how to truly maneuver with the the large sword last year and was still drastically inexperienced with the intricacies of using it. Going from using a sword and shield to giving up the latter and just using a sword was an unexpected switch that really messed with his fighting technique. Using a shield had made him rather defensive when it came to fighting, but the broadsword required him to now throw out heavy hits and be on the front line of attack.

He wasn't ready for this. He had no redeeming qualities to make up for his shortcoming and now he was being thrown into combat.

His chances of being injured or even dying were much more significant than the rest of these students. But what frightened him more than that was that he could possibly injure another with his lack of skill. He knew that these tests were based heavily on cooperation and team skills and if he was to hurt someone else...he wouldn't be able to live with himself.

These thoughts plagued his mind and furthered his doubt until a display screen in the cockpit lit up. The face of a female professor with glasses gazed at the seated students. Everyone's attention was instantly drawn away from whatever task they were doing and all eyes were on the screen. His train of thought vanished once she started to speak,

"Hello children, my name is Glynda Goodwitch, or as you should call me, Professor Goodwitch. I'm the second in command here at Beacon and will be teaching... _most_ of you during your studies here." Her voice was stern and it sent a shiver down Jaune's spine.

He had heard about Goodwitch's abilities from huntsmen who would cycle in and out of his childhood house. She was a pretty popular character in Vale and was claimed to be one of the most powerful huntresses in the world given the power of her semblance.

She continued on, "Right now, you must all be wondering as to what is occurring," she paused, "As you should be. After all, there has been very few initiation tests held in the middle of the night. You might be asking yourself, 'Why is this happening?' and alI I can say for right now is that that will be more important in time. So, let me describe for you all about what is going to be done in the next few hours." Everyone leaned their heads in to listen.

"You all have be assigned to a group and a team color. Every student in the cockpit of your airship is a part of your group and protecting these team members lives is the number one priority during this test. I will reiterate this point: nothing else is more crucial than ensuring the safety of your team.

Your team will be taken to a designated drop area where every member will off load, and it is your duty as a team to make your way to a designated rescue point that will be sent to all of your scrolls." Every scroll in the airship vibrated in response to this comment. Jaune took his out and gazed at the map and the point that was marked. His eyes widened in response to seeing the twenty mile distance between the drop off point, which was also marked, and the pick up area.

"If you make it to this point before dawn with your team, then you've passed. If you fail to make it to this point in the time allotted, then don't bother showing back up at Beacon. I wish you all the best of luck and look forward to seeing some of you in my class."

And with that, the cockpit was again darkened with the lack of the screen's brightness. Jaune's head shifted back down towards the floor and he shuffled his feet around. His nerves were getting to him.

A voice broke the silence of the room and alerted them all to the fact that drop off would be in five minutes.

Jaune looked back over to where the dark-haired girl was sitting and saw her still fiddling with her weapon. She looked surprisingly calm for the situation she was in right now. She was definitely doing better than him.

His hands were shaking and he felt nauseous, which he couldn't tell if that was from his motion sickness or just plain nerves; either way, he still felt awful. His breathing became rapid and his head became light. Before he could freak out any further, his mind drifted off into a memory.

" _This is amazing, sweetheart," Jaune's mother said staring in amazement at the broadsword Jaune had forged._

 _Jaune and his mother sat on a couch side by side looking at the new sword. Jaune's mother had told him that he was going to need an official sword if he was going to go to Beacon. Every applicant was advised to do so as to increase their chances of being accepted, and his mother knew that he was going to need to increase his chances immensely if he was going to even have a whim of getting accepted, even if she never said so._

 _She rested a hand on his knee. "Where did you learn to even make this?" She asked being genuinely confused about how he was able to achieve such a feat without any prior knowledge of forging._

 _He shrugged, "I read a couple books on it."_

 _She scoffed and a smile was painted across her face. She reached out and ran her hand down the blade, inspecting it for any chips or bumps and found that it was completely smooth. Jaune had a funny way of surprising her with his ability to pick up on things so quickly. She had seen many of trained huntsmen try and fail at forging a decent sword and here comes her son, who had only ever read about making a sword, with an amazing piece of craftsmanship._

" _Have you given it a name yet?"_

" _No...—I haven't," he said looking down. The smile on his face was now gone and had been replaced with disappointment._

 _She turned to him, noticing his change in tone, and felt uneasy at the sight of her son. His head was cocked down and his eyes were closed._

 _Her happy voice morphed into a concerned one, "Jaune?"_

 _He continued to stare down at the floor, "...It's not Crocea Mors." His voice wasn't filled with spite like she thought it would be at the mention of his father's sword, but it was filled with something she now understood: longing._

 _Crocea Mors was a Arc family treasure and it was tradition for the first born son of each generation of Arc's to receive this sword before going to an academy. The tradition had stretched back for multiple lines of Arc's and it's said that anyone who wields that sword, wields the entire family lineage and was destined to become another addition to the heros of the Arcs. It was considered an honor to receive that sword… which made the idea that Jaune's father didn't think he was worthy enough to wield Crocea Mors all the more painful to bear._

 _The night that her husband told Jaune that he didn't deserve to even hold something so treasured was burnt into her skull. She could still remember the light in Jaune's eyes vanish instantaneously and the defeated look that had painted his face. Eroe might as well have taken a knife and stabbed his son right in the heart because something broke in Jaune that night. Something that he would never be able to regain._

 _She had left her husband about a year ago now, which was around the time Jaune started going to combat school, and had taken her children that still lived at home with her. She hadn't seen him since she left._

" _...I know, sweetie." She wrapped her arm around him in an attempt to comfort him in some way. But it didn't seem to work and Jaune continued to look down in disappointment._

" _I know…"_

The comforting embrace of Jaune's mother was cut short by a blaring alarm bouncing around in the cockpit and a strobing red light. His peers were jumping from their seats, grabbing their weapons, and heading to the gate of the ship waiting for it to open. Jaune snapped out of his trance and followed their lead and slung his sword and sheath back across his chest and over his shoulder.

For the most part, his trembling had stopped and his breathing had steadied. His nerves were at bay, for the moment, so he strode up to the back of his group and waited to begin his test.

The red light kept flashing and in those moments in which he could see the people in front of him, he saw nothing but determination—he was the only one that looked to be afraid. He couldn't focus on anything other than what could go wrong during this test, but they didn't. They all looked fearless and prepared—they all looked like heros. They all looked like people he could only hope to be.

The small girl he had saw before even looked to be fearless, maybe more so than a lot of the others, despite the fact that she looked to be a foot shorter than him.

As this thought went through his mind, the red light stopped flashing and everything went dark. The tension in the cockpit became so weighted that someone could cut through it with a knife. Nobody said a word because everyone knew what was about to transpire.

A green light started to flash and was accompanied by the creaking of the cockpit's door. The back opened up and Jaune was met by a strong gust of wind that almost knocked him off his feet. The sound of the airship's turbines roared through the cabin and he clapped his hands over his ears at the sound.

The ship was hovering a decent amount over the treeline of a forest and the moon was still high in the sky. Jaune predicted that it was about two in the morning which gave his group about four to five hours to get to the extraction point. They would have to average about a mile in fifteen minutes at the most, which seemed easy enough, but that wasn't accounting for Grimm encounters and terrain.

A voice came over the intercom and began to detail their situation, "Alright—we're hovering at around three-hundred feet above the ground right now and I don't want to descend any lower… so you all are going to jump from this height."

 _Say what now?_

"When I say 'go', you'll jump out, regroup, and then start making your way towards the extraction point."

 _Jump out?_

"1… 2…"

 _Oh shit._

"...3"

* * *

" **AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH** — **WHHYYY MEEEEEE!** " Jaune screamed while falling through the air.

He had been pushed out the door of the cabin by the students behind him who got fed up with him trying to get past them and back to his seat. Now he was flying through the air right over the point where he had seen the other students who flew out before him go towards.

He needed to figure out how to stabilize his body which was currently flipping out of control; otherwise, he wouldn't need to worry about reaching the evac point.

His first instinct was to throw out his arms and try to flip over to his stomach and then figure out the rest from that position. So, he forced his arms out from their position on his chest and he rotated his body with as much force as he could put into the action. It worked and he was left looking straight down at the trees, which he was now uncomfortably close to striking.

He didn't have time to think, so he grabbed the handle of his sword and unsheathed it as quickly as possible. He pulled the sword to where it would be in a position where it could stab into a tree. There was no clear-cut plan about what he was about to do, but he had an idea.

His body eventually burst through the top of the trees and Jaune was left to hope that his sword would meet something solid before he could crash into the ground. Almost on command, he felt his body be jerked with the sudden presence of his sword slicing through a tree. He heard the trunk of the unfortunate tree be split apart and pieces of wood started flying through the air.

His feet struck the forest floor with enough force to knock the wind out of him and he collapsed to the ground. He heaved trying to fill his lungs with oxygen and he laid on his back staring up to where he had just been pushed out of the ship. The sky was now clear of any kind of airship and he heard the distant roar of the beast flying away from where he was.

It was official: initiation had begun. There was no going back. He was here now and nothing was going to change that.

He sat up after regaining his breath and looked at the now mangled tree that his sword was in. He stumbled to his feet and grabbed the hilt of his sword again and tried to pull the thing out. But when he tried to pull it out initially, he was met by resistance. The sword was lodged so far in the tree that even when he put all of his strength into it, it still didn't budge.

Jaune continued to struggle with the sword until he felt a hand on his shoulder shove him back, which threw him back to the ground.

Jaune angrily looked up to the person who had just thrown him onto his ass, but was only met by the back of a tall, orange-haired guy who was now pulling on his sword.

Almost as quick as he had showed up, the guy had pulled the sword from the tree. The power of this guy in being able to pull his sword out like it was nothing instantly intimidated Jaune.

The boy turned back and faced down to the now mystified Jaune and threw his sword at the space next to his sitting form. He was now able to fully identify who had just helped him out.

The guy was a large, armored brute who had to have been a full foot taller than himself. His face was chiseled and showed a guy who had years and years of rigorous training.

The boy looked at him for a couple more seconds before his expressionless face was replaced by a small scowl. "Are you going to just keep staring at me, or are you going to get up and grab your sword?" He asked moving his way around him towards the area most of the other students had landed.

Jaune shook his head in confusion before realizing he had just been staring aimlessly at him. He scattered to his feet and hoisted his heavy sword up with him and rested the blade on his shoulder before following after the other student.

Jaune pushed through the heavy amount of leaves on the ground and was able to now fully observe his surroundings. They were encompassed by dense forest that barely allowed the moon's light to breach its treeline. Bushes stood still with the lack of any noticeable wind and the thorns of briars gleamed in warning to any unsuspecting traveler. Crickets chirped occasionally and filled the forest with ear-piercing sound.

This reminded him of the forest near his house. The one he run off into to get away from everything. His sister would constantly call it his safe haven, and in some ways, it really was.

His mind snapped out of it and he stared back to the person walking in front of him. He thought about what had just occurred and mentally kicked himself for not thanking this guy.

"Uh...thanks for—uh—getting my sword out of that tree," Jaune said looking back towards the tree that he had split apart.

The guy glanced back at him at the statement before shaking his head in annoyance, "Why were you not able to pull it out back there?"

The contempt behind the question caught Jaune off guard and he could only respond with a simple 'huh' before he could think of a proper response.

He stopped in his tracks and Jaune had to quickly catch himself before he collided with him. The brute turned around to face Jaune and found himself looking down to see his blonde head. Jaune looked up to meet his gaze and was met by two glaring indigo eyes.

"I asked why were you not able to pull it out yourself?"

The sound of the crickets was dampened by the booming voice and Jaune continued to just stare at this guy. Jaune could hear the faint sound of the other's voices a little distance off.

"...Beca—Because I had just fallen from the sky—"

Jaune was cut off quickly, "—That's no excuse. I fell from the same ship and was easily able to pull that sword out," he said with arrogance.

Jaune grimaced at the asshole-ish comment. Jaune was already being questioned about his ability only several minutes in which was something he hadn't thought would happen. He had given himself at least an hour until any kind of doubting ensued, but this defied expectations in a horrible way and made his stomach turn.

His worst fears were coming to life. He truly didn't belong here.

As Jaune looked down in shame, his eye caught an engraving on the mace of the guy who was now towering over him. He focused his sight and saw what he assumed to be the name of this student: Cardin.

Cardin shook his head yet again and said in the same arrogant tone, "You can't even answer my question."

Cardin crossed his arms in front of his armored chest and sighed. He turned back around towards his previous destination and continued on.

Jaune continued to look down until he heard Cardin yell behind him, "Hey! We have to regroup, come on!"

Jaune's eyes were drawn back towards Cardin and was surprised by the fact that he hadn't pressed the issue further and hurt Jaune anymore. He needed to shake this encounter off, after all, cooperation would be key in this test and he didn't want to already make enemies the first few minutes in.

Jaune sprinted after Cardin, who he had lost sight of after he had pushed past some thick brush. Jaune followed suit by shoving his way through the brush as well. Thorns picked his exposed skin and he started cussing out the damned things. His aura made it to where he only felt what resembled a bee sting, but even though it didn't hurt that much, they still were annoying.

He started thinking that the thorns were never ending and that he would be stuck in them forever until he heard voices faintly talking. The ambience of these voices increased as he progressed and he felt himself going quicker and quicker to escape the hell hole he was currently in.

Pushing his way out of the bushes and briars, Jaune was greeted by a small outcropping with seven students standing around.

The moon cast down a light that helped him in identifying who all was in front of him. He instantly spotted Cardin who hulked over the entire group and the girl he had seen earlier. The others were completely foreign to him because of his lack of looking around on the ship. Two of the guys had on armor similar to Cardin and another guy had a mohawk. His eyes were drawn to the other two people in the clearing and he was taken off guard by the sight: both of them looked exactly the same. Their clothes were the same, their weapons looked to be the same, and their physical features were identical. They had to be twins.

All of their eyes turned to him as soon as he burst into the clearing. He slowly straightened up and waved at them.

"Hey," he said awkwardly.

Every one of them looked amongst each other before looking back at Jaune. Nobody said a word until the one guy with the mohawk spoke up,

"You're the guy that had to be pushed out of the ship."

The air went quiet and everyone continued staring at Jaune.

"Uh—yeah, that would be me," Jaune said snapping his finger at the guy before noticing the look of annoyance painted on his face.

He shook his head and one of the armored students spoke up as well, "What's your name?"

Jaune answered and the guy nodded before speaking up again, "Well next time—Jaune, try not to make as much noise as possible."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean don't mutilate an entire tree when landing. It draws the attention of Grimm."

Jaune understood what he meant that time and was quick to form a response, "Ah—yeah sorry about that."

And just like that, the people in the clearing went back to the conversation they were having before Jaune showed up.

"Anyways, my name is Sky," the one with the mullet said before looking at the guy beside him.

The name train went down the line, and one-by-one every person gave their name.

"Dove."

"Russel."

"Cardin."

When the name train reached the twins, one of them answered for the both of them, "This is Pat," he said pointing to the guy next to him, "and mine is Pan."

Everyone had given their names except the girl. She shuffled her feet and looked down at the compact rifle in her hands.

"I'm Ruby," the girl said nervously.

Jaune then noticed something interesting about this girl he hadn't observed before or paid much mind to. She had silver eyes. He had heard about some silver eyed huntsmen and huntresses in the past being a formidable force from his mother. She had told him that they had some sort of special ability that could even strike fear into the souls of Grimm, which sounded terrifying to Jaune. He had only met one person ever that had silver eyes and she was claimed to be one of the strongest huntresses in Remnant. Now that he thought about it, Ruby actually had a striking resemblance to her.

Cardin nodded in satisfaction at the fact that he now knew everyone's name. "We need to get going if we're going to get to the evac in time," Cardin said looking at his scroll, "I'll lead the way."

The group all seemed to agree and began after Cardin who had pulled out his mace and was holding it with one hand while the other held his scroll.

* * *

The yellow banded group must've been walking for about an hour and a half now according to Jaune's internal clock. Nothing had occurred except for the occasional Beowolf encounter, which proved to be a quick and easy hazard to deal with. They were nearly halfway there and were walking a fairly good pace. The test had been sort of easy… so far at least.

Dove, Sky, and Russel were all walking behind Cardin and occasionally chatted with one another. They seemed to be getting along pretty well considering the circumstances, which baffled Jaune immensely. Ruby and him were in the middle of the convoy, and that left Pat and Pan to take up the rear. The twins seemed to be joking with each other and both had a foreign accent that Jaune couldn't really pin down,

He hadn't said a single word since they left the clearing and neither had Ruby. They had remained completely silent throughout the entire ordeal and it made Jaune mildly uncomfortable. He didn't want to seem like he wasn't interested in anything she had to say because he really did want to talk to her, but he just didn't know how to start off the conversation.

He continued debating what to say to her for a couple more minutes before the task was lifted off his shoulders by the same person he was trying to build up the courage to talk to.

"Hey," Ruby whispered walking up beside Jaune.

Jaune was caught off guard by the sudden interaction. He had seen her lagging behind him a bit just a second ago and now she was right beside him. It was like she teleported next to him.

Jaune turned his head to look at her. "Hey, what's up?"

Ruby's weapon was in its compact form on her back and hadn't moved from that spot for a little while now. He had learned a couple miles back that his original thought about her maybe being a force to be reckoned with was true.

The ragtag convoy had encountered some Grimm while walking and Cardin, who was the one taking out most of the Grimm before the incident, was slightly overwhelmed. Jaune was going to step in but stopped when he saw a giant scythe come crashing down from above on the unsuspecting Grimm. Needless to say, the Grimm didn't last long and he was now scared of pissing off Ruby.

"So your name's Jaune, right?" She asked staring at him.

He nodded in response.

She paused, "Is your last name Arc?"

Jaune looked at her incredulously before answering with, "Yeah, it is… how did you know that?"

Ruby shrugged in return, "My sister mentioned that she talked to yesterday."

Jaune nearly face planted at that comment and had to catch himself mentally and physically. "Hold up—is your sister _Yang_?" Jaune asked having to hold in a lot of his disbelief because he didn't want to seem rude.

Ruby nodded slightly, "Technically, she's my half-sister, but I think that's kind of a demeaning title."

Ruby looked up at Jaune and seemed to be taken off guard by the stupid look on his face. He couldn't really believe it. The connection just didn't click in his head.

Before he could comment or think about what she had just told him, Ruby interjected with yet another question,

"Do you have a sister named Catherine?" She sounded genuinely interested in knowing.

Jaune's confusion intensified at the mention of his sister. He didn't like talking about his family with people, much less with someone he had just met.

"...Yeah—why?" He asked with a hint of reservation.

Ruby seemed to pick up on that resistance and was quick to diffuse any tension, "Oh—it's nothing bad. It's just I remember watching her in the finals of the Vytal Tournament a couple years back."

Jaune looked over at Ruby again who was now looking in front of her instead of at him.

"Oh, yeah. She was in that," he said maneuvering over a patch of rocks.

The trees were starting to get denser and the forest gave off an eerie vibe that made Jaune's skin crawl. This no longer reminded him of the forest from his home, but something out of a horror movie.

"Yeah, she's a really good fighter," she paused, "I was surprised that she lost."

"Well—that's what happens when you go against someone as good as Winter Schnee," Jaune said plainly ducking under some branches.

Ruby stopped for a second, "Schnee?"

Jaune turned to find her looking straight at him. Something about that look made him feel uncomfortable.

"Yah… you know her?"

Ruby shook her head. "No—I just...never mind."

They continued forward without talking for another couple moments. That gave Jaune enough time to see how far they had come. He pulled out his scroll and tapped on the power button. The screen lit up and he shielded his eyes before seeing that they were now only six miles away, but that wasn't the only thing that grabbed his attention.

The screen was flashing red.

He looked up to the front of the pack and called out to Cardin to see if his scroll was also flashing.

"It's probably just some glitch with the map," Cardin answered back. He brushed the idea of the red light meaning something to the side and continued forward as normal.

Jaune thought about it for a little more time before shrugging and shoving the scroll back into the pocket of his jeans. It was probably nothing more than a glitch like Cardin had said.

His attention was again drawn to the girl who was following only a few steps behind him; he had a question for her this time.

"What's your last name?" Jaune asked innocently thinking that since she now knew his, he should know her's as well.

"Rose. My last name is Rose."

…

…

"Rose? In—like—the flower?" He asked now curious of something.

"Yeah," she said continuing forward.

Jaune stopped dead in his tracks. His mind had finally made sense of something that had bugged him since he had seen Ruby's eyes.

Ruby didn't stop walking and continued right past him. She didn't notice he had stopped until she couldn't hear the familiar sound of leaves crunching in front of her. She turned back to see if he had stopped to adjust his sheath or something, but found only the sight of him looking at her.

Jaune's face had turned white like he had seen a ghost and he was staring her dead in the eyes. The entire forest seemed to be irrelevant to him as he only looked at her. She became concerned,

"Jaune, are you okay—"

"—Are you related to Summer Rose?"

The words seemed to flow out of Jaune's mouth before he could catch himself. His mind was instantly punching itself for being so stupid. Ruby's body tensed at the mention of Summer. The whole forest went quiet for the two of them and they simply stared each other down. Nothing rustled in the wind. Nothing chirped. Just complete silence.

Ruby couldn't stand to stay silent anymore and she mouthed some words before asking, "What did you say?"

Jaune was about to answer before he was cut off by Russel, who was now a decent ways ahead of them.

"Hey, guys! You better come and look at this!"

Jaune and Ruby stared at one another for another second before they broke from each other's gaze, running towards where Russel had called from. '

They only had to run for a moment before they reached where the front of the pack had been and found all of them crowded around a single tree. Something had to be wrong.

When they eventually joined them, Jaune was the first to question what they were doing,

"What is it?"

None of them gave him a straight answer and only pointed to a spot on the tree.

"I'm no Grimm expert or anything, but I don't think a Beowolf could make that," Cardin said.

Jaune looked to where they were referring to and was taken back by what his eyes met. There was a giant mangled mark that was etched across the tree. The thing resembled something that only a monster could make.

Ruby surprised him by speaking up, "Is that something an Ursa Major would do?"

Dove shook his head, "No, it's way too big to be an Ursa mark."

They all stared, mystified by the mark that was on the tree. Jaune could tell they were all trying to make sense of this, not just him.

But as they thought, a loud, booming screech interrupted their thoughts. That wasn't the only thing that terrified them though: following the screech was the scream of a person, more specifically, one of the twins.

Everyone snapped their heads back towards the sound, which happened to be the way they had just came from. Nobody said a word as the screeching and screaming continued. The whole forest cringed at each pained cry and Jaune started to feel nauseous when the cries became garbled with what he could only assume to be blood. The moment continued on until the sounds completely ended. The tension in the air was suffocating as everyone of the students felt the same horrible dread.

They had left the twins behind when they had run up to see the tree. No one had thought about them; Jaune hadn't even considered yelling back to them to make sure they had heard the message.

The silence continued on for another couple minutes before Cardin's shaky voice spoke up,

"We should keep—"

He couldn't finish his sentence because the moment he had started to talk, a rustling could be heard from a set of bushes that set a little ways away from them. All of them took out their weapons and Jaune could see the tip of Ruby's scythe in his peripheral.

The rustling continued to get louder and louder as if something was approaching where they were. But as soon as it had begun, the rustling stopped and was replaced by silence. Their stares were glued to the spot and no one dared look away.

Out of nowhere, the rustling started again and a figure burst out of the shrubbery. Jaune was about to run forward to engage whatever it was, but stopped in his tracks when the figure became illuminated by the moon and Pat could be identified.

A feeling of relief washed over Jaune at the sight of one of the twins, but was quickly ruined when he saw the state the guy was in.

Blood was dripping from his face and his clothes were torn to shreds. Instead of running, he limped towards them and his left arm was...gone.

Tears were flowing down the pained face of Pat and he started screaming at them.

"HELP! PLEASE HELP ME!"

Jaune moved forward slightly.

"IT'S COMING!"

Jaune sheathed his sword and began to run towards him.

"IT'S COMING!"

Jaune picked up the pace, but was quick to stop because of the thing behind Pat.

Something huge had emerged from the bushes behind Pat. The creature huffed and screeched in the same dreadful way that Jaune and everyone else had heard minutes ago.

Pat's eyes widened at the sound and he started to limp faster and scream louder.

" **PLEEEAASSEE! HELLPPP MMEEEE!** "

Jaune stood grounded to the spot as he watched the creature sprint after Pat.

" **I DON'T WANT TO DIEE!"**

Jaune shook off the shock of seeing this creature and started towards Pat at a renewed pace.

" **HELPP ME! JAUNNEEE PLEASE HELP MEHEEUUFHHFYEEH** —"

Time stood still as Pat's head was grabbed by the creature and crushed like an egg. Jaune froze in horror. Pat's limp body fell to the ground with a thump and the noise pierced Jaune's eardrums.

This wasn't happening. None of this was happening. Jaune had to be dreaming; he had to be asleep. This couldn't be the initiation test. It couldn't be. Nothing this diabolical would ever be employed by an academy. Jaune knew that this test was used a method to divide out the weak and unqualified from the strong and capable, but he had never heard of someone being beheaded by a monster.

Jaune couldn't focus and he seemed to wane in and out of consciousness. He had also been close enough to the incident to where he was caked in the blood of his past teammate.

He felt severely fatigued. He couldn't continue… not after what he had just witnessed. But something, or more accurately, someone yelled out his name and it brought him back into focus.

"JAUNE!"

…

"JAUNE! RUN!"

Jaune shook his head and stared back at where he had just saw Pat get murdered. A dark figure was now standing over the puddle of blood and Jaune was able to now distinguish what was in front of him.

 _Oh shit_ was the only thing he could utter before he shoved his body from the ground and ran back towards where the last remaining members of his group stood.

"RUN!" Jaune yelled at them and they all turned and ran toward the evac point fearing the creature lumbering after them.

* * *

Constant screeches were the only thing that Jaune could hear as he and the rest of them sprinted through the forest. Tree limbs smacked his face and thorns cut his skin, but he kept running. Every ounce of pain that he was feeling was irrelevant. He had to make it to this evac point or a thorn stuck in his finger was going to be the least of his problems.

He could make out the figures of Dove, Russel, Cardin, and Sky directly in front of him and he could faintly make out a trail of rose petals. They were all now traveling so fast that trees whizzed past their bodies and clouds of dirt were flung up from their feet.

For all Jaune knew, he was the only one who had seen what had killed the twins, but all of them ran with the same balls to the wall speed as him. They were all equally afraid of what had just occurred and this made Jaune feel horrible.

That meant that all of them were stuck with the same level of disbelief as he was. That meant that this was real, not some twisted dream that was happening in his head.

He shook off the thought. He needed to focus on running and not tripping. He didn't even want to imagine what might happen to him if he was to trip.

Jaune pushed as much energy into his running as he possibly could and eventually found, after a minute of running at full speed, he had sprinted past the four other guys and was now in able to make out the trail of rose petals more clearly now.

He didn't realize he could run this fast until now and it made him realize what fear can do to a person.

Just then, a scream raked through the forest and made Jaune even more afraid, but something was off: the scream hadn't come from behind him where the monster was, but from in front of him where Ruby was.

He heard Yang's words repeat themselves in his head,

 _Because my ass isn't the only one that I have to worry about out there—my sister will be out there as well._

He felt his feet move even faster than before thinking about what could have happened to her and what he would have to say to Yang if he had let Ruby get hurt or worse. He closed his eyes at the thought and tried to shake it off.

But before he could think, he felt his body begin to fall to the ground and his sheath was torn from his body. His head crashed into the earth and his vision blacked out for a second before he realized what had just happened.

He looked behind him to see his sheath and sword hanging from the branch that had snagged it and caused him to fall. Jaune was about to go back and grab his weapon but another horrible sounding scream came from in front of him again.

He looked at the sword briefly before deciding against grabbing it and ran towards where he had heard the scream.

 _She's more important than my sword_ he thought as he shoved his way through what felt like the hundredth brush and came into view of what Ruby's situation was:

The body of an Ursa lay on the ground dead and under it was Ruby writhing under the weight of the beast. She was struggling immensely to break from the death trap she was in.

Jaune wasted no time in running over and trying to lift the body off of her. The Grimm's body wasn't fading quick enough for Ruby to escape before the creature could reach her, so he needed to act fast if he was going to save her life.

Ruby's eyes lit up at the sight of Jaune running over to her and was quick to explain,

"I was going as fast as I could and I ran into this thing," she referred to the body that was currently crushing her, "I killed it, but it's now pinning me to the ground."

Jaune didn't respond and attempted at putting his arms underneath the thing and putting as much as he could into lifting it. He dug his feet into the ground and clenched his teeth in strain, but the thing didn't even budge. He tried to do the same thing again and failed…

and again…

and again…

Nothing happened. Not a damn thing. Jaune panted and began to question Ruby,

"Ruby, can you not just use your semblance and shot out of there?"

Ruby started to struggle even more. "No! I have no more aura!"

A screech enveloped the forest and sounded closer to them than before, which meant that Ruby's fate was timed. He needed to get the Ursa off of her now. Jaune dug his feet back into the ground and lifted as much as he could.

When Jaune had taken up using the broadsword, he had also started to workout his arms a lot more as to be able to swing around the weapon with a lot more ease, but even after all of that work, he still wasn't able to lift anything of any significance.

Jaune started to fear the worst and prepared himself to have to deal with another death. But just as he started to become worried, four guys came barreling at him. Jaune breathed out in relief that he would actually have some help with lifting this thing and that he wouldn't have to tell Yang that her sister had died because of his weakness.

Jaune continued to try and lift the massive weight and yelled at the his teammates,

"I need help! Ruby's stuck and I can't lift this thing by myself!"

Jaune closed his eyes again and strained his body again, but to no avail. However, he was expecting that when he opened his eyes again there would be people to assist him, but when he opened his eyes again there was only one guy…

…

Cardin stood looking at Jaune struggling. His face was one of deep contemplation, which was not what Jaune was expecting.

He was expecting the four guys to have helped him instantly, not have three of them run by without a second thought and have the last one simply look at him.

Jaune's hope faded as he saw the conflicted look of Cardin. The man wasn't moving to help him and was looking to where his friends had just ran.

Jaune looked desperately at Cardin and shook his head. "Please, Cardin…," Cardin turned to Jaune, "I need your help."

…

…

Cardin looked down and the darkness concealed his face.

"I have to look out for myself, Jaune." And with that, the brute ran away.

"NO! **CARDIN YOU FUCK!** " Jaune yelled after him in anger.

Fueled by rage, Jaune felt his body kick into overdrive and he put all of his strength into lifting the body. Jaune couldn't even bare to look at Ruby who was probably terrified out of her mind right now. She was the one stuck under the Ursa, and she was the one that the four guys had left to die.

Jaune felt his legs give out and his face collapsed into the body of the Ursa; he was exhausted. Between sprinting for several miles straight and having the hope ripped from his body, he was defeated.

The forest was completely silent and Jaune hadn't heard a screech since before he had that encounter with Cardin. A breeze had picked up and rustled the leaves of the trees above him. It was serene.

Jaune looked over to Ruby who had been staring off into the darkness of the forest ever since Cardin had left and it made him sick to think of leaving someone like her out here to suffer the same fate as Pat.

"Ruby…," Jaune said with his faltering voice, "I'm—I'm… so sorry."

That was the only thing he could say before he heard a bone-chilling growl come from the densely wooded area in front of them. His blood froze and every limb in Jaune's body ceased to move.

A single red eye stared at him from the darkness. Jaune stood up and looked as the monster emerged from the darkness into the light of the moon. The massive Beringel stared down Jaune and screeched at him.

Jaune wasn't going to run from this. No.

…

He had to kill this thing or die trying.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Holy crap, that took a lot longer to write than I originally thought it would. Man, Thanksgiving is a time consuming holiday, and pair that with me not having a clear cut plan on what I was going to do for this chapter and you got yourself a long writing period. Seriously, I apologize for that wait. But here it is now and oh man is it here.

This chapter ended up being around 8k words, which is twice as much as I had originally planned. The reason for that was because I was watching the Conjuring 2 and I had the idea that I wanted to have a killer Beringel in initiation and this kind of just came from that idea.

So, let me address some things.

First, I killed those two twins kind of brutally to show that this is not going to be a particularly happy fanfiction, so if you're looking for something more upbeat, then I suggest looking somewhere else. There this fanfiction that came out around the same time as mine that is basically a compilation of Jaune and Yang one-shots that I've gotten into and would suggest as an alternative (I don't remember the exact name of the story, but yeah).

Secondly, holy shit. I murdered those twins. I kind of wrote in their deaths as I went along and thought it fit the tone of this chapter pretty well, so they're dead now. Originally, I was going to have them have a little bit of dialogue but decided against it since I didn't want them to be in any future chapters.

Thirdly, the spelling and grammar in this chapter might be poor because I rushed to get this out in the middle of the night. So, I can only suggest that you please excuse some things like that and maybe tell me where these errors are so that I can edit them.

And lastly, thank you. I'm going to say this a lot and I mean it every single time, but thank you for actually spending the time to read my content. I means a lot and gives me the inspiration needed to write on into one in the morning.

And I think I'm done, see ya in the next chapter.


	4. The Beringel (Initiation: Part 2)

**The Beringel**

 **(Initiation: Part 2):**

Jaune had fought a few Grimm in his life. His oldest sister had made sure of that with her training sessions and he had never really had a problem with killing them. Even with a practice sword, he could take them out with minimal effort. So, he wasn't really afraid of taking on most Grimm, but no amount of training would have prepared him for this. This thing was absurd.

The bone plating on this Beringel showed age with all its nicks and divots. Arrows stuck out from its back making the Grimm look like it had quills and they clinked together making a cacophonous amount of sound. His teeth stuck out and gleamed piercing the night's darkness. But what really disturbed Jaune were its eyes; the red orbs stared at his motionless body and made him remember the horrible fate of the twins.

He glued himself to the spot and neither of them moved even an inch. They just continued to stare at each other. Jaune's mind went instantly to his sword which wasn't currently on his back because of his carelessness. He should've taken another couple seconds to grab it instead of rushing into help Ruby. Now he was stuck in a stand still with the biggest enemy he had ever encountered without a weapon. His sister would be pissed off at him being so stupid.

Jaune needed a weapon. His eyes gradually scanned the forest in search of anything useful, even if it was just a big stick, he just needed something to make him feel a bit more confident about fighting this thing. Something about fighting a Beringel with just his fists didn't sit well with him. All he was able to make out was a couple of twigs and some pebbles, both of which weren't going aid him. His hope became less and less as his eyes finally scanned the entire area in his line of sight and nothing seemed to present itself.

The Beringel huffed and moved forward a little bit. Jaune's muscles tensed up and he brought his eyes back to meet the Grimm's. Its head was now lower to the ground almost like it was analyzing him, or readying itself to kill him.

Jaune's attention was then gained by Ruby who was still trapped under the fading Ursa. "Jaune," she whispered, "You need to run." He didn't look back at her, instead he kept his eyes focused upwards towards the eyes of the monster.

"I think it's too late for that now," Jaune said bluntly while the Beringel moved slightly forward. Something about a thing that could eat him whole wasn't exactly comforting.

 _Go figure._

However, the thought of yet another person getting hurt scared him even more. He needed to help Ruby. Something in him kept him grounded and unmoving. Maybe it was fear. Maybe it was stupidity. Or maybe it was something else, but it didn't matter right now, he had to figure out how to survive.

His blue eyes looked straight ahead and met the red eyes of the Beringel, which was now looking like it was ready to charge. Jaune dug his feet into the ground and prepared to have to face the monster without a weapon. He thought about luring the Beringel back towards the direction from where he lost his sword, then he could maybe stand a chance against it, and if it didn't work out that way, he would at least know that the Ursa pinning Ruby would've dissipated by then and she could escape.

He was about to carry out his plan… but then something hit him.

"Ruby?" Ruby, who was still trying to writhe out from her death trap, looked over to him with a panicked look on her face. "Where's your scythe?" She stopped her efforts to escape and looked around. Her eyes quickly locked onto an area over to her left.

"Over there," she said resuming her desperate attempts to escape. Jaune's eyes looked to the same place and he was greeted by half of her scythe's blade poking out from the shrubbery.

He didn't waste any time and his feet pushed his body in that direction. A roar erupted from behind him and the ground shook from the Beringel running in his direction. Jaune disregarded the sound and only focused on reaching the weapon. He had never used anything other than a sword in his life, but a scythe was definitely better than his fists. He had caught glimpses of Ruby using Crescent Rose when they were still trekking through the forest and had a basic idea of how she swung the blade.

The Beringel stormed past Ruby, dead set on killing Jaune. Jaune's body slid towards the scythe and he quickly grabbed the long handle. He heard the stomps getting louder and louder and they almost felt like they were right behind him. Not wanting to take any chances, Jaune swung the blade around as quickly as he could fearing the beast was right behind him.

His swing was met by the pained cry of the Grimm as it stumbled back. A long, ragged crack stretched across its chestplate, exposing the dark skin underneath. Jaune's surprise made him stand still watching the creature as it put its giant hand up to its chest. His face turned quickly into one of panic as the Grimm rose its eyes back up to meet his. The creature belted out a screech so loud that Jaune had to cover his ears because it felt like knives were being shoved into his head. Flocks of birds took off in the distance, scared by the screech.

The thing quickly threw itself at Jaune again and he rose up and threw out another swing hoping this one would hit its mark as well.

* * *

"Do you ever stop complaining?" Yang had turned completely around to face the girl that had not stopped talking since they had been dropped off. It was like she had to find something to be annoyed about, or it would be the end of the world. Ruby had talked about meeting this girl and how she had been sort of mean, and she had also had the liberty of meeting her the day before. However, she didn't realize just _how_ annoying Weiss could be.

The red-banded group stopped and watched as the two girls butt heads. They were only three miles away from the evac point and the entire test had been fairly tame. The closest thing they had to any kind of roadblock was an Ursa, which had been torn apart almost instantly. In truth, this had been the only point in which they had actually stopped for something.

Weiss's nose turned up in disgust. "And what is that supposed to mean?" Even though Weiss wasn't that tall, she must've felt like she was biggest one in the group. She was constantly ordering the people on her team around and it was pissing Yang off.

"It means you're being a bitch," she scoffed mockingly and looked around, "Who said that?"

The smirk on Yang's face stayed where it was as Weiss gasped, "How dare you! Do you even know who I am?"

"Why would that matter?"

"Because I'm the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company!"

Yang stepped forward, "So? Do you really think some stupid title would makes you any better than others?" Every word that came out Weiss's mouth someone was able to make Yang angrier than before. Weiss had been constantly flaunting her prestigious title around as a way to justify herself to everyone, and Yang was tired of it.

"N—No. That's not what I meant," Weiss said stomping her foot down in front of her in defiance.

"Oh—so you just feel entitled, is that it?" The two were practically nose-to-nose now.

"I feel entitled to at least have competent teammates—which is something that you are obviously not!" Weiss glared up at her and Yang stared back at Weiss.

"Hey!" Both girls were taken off guard when another voice yelled at them from the side. They looked off towards where the voice had come from. "We're getting nowhere with you two fighting with each other and we do not have a lot of time before the sun comes up, so—please—just work together for another three miles."

The dark-haired girl who had spoken up looked desperate as she had noticed that the sky was turning a purple-ish color from the rising sun. Yang had talked just enough to her the night before to know that her name was Blake and that she liked to read and that was literally it. Ever since the group of students had been dropped off to the point they were at now, Blake had been silent; she hadn't said a single meaningful word. And it wasn't like no one had tried to talk to her, she was pretty sure that everyone had at least attempted to say something to her, except for Weiss, but every response was either 'yes', 'no', or a quick nod. This kind of silence wasn't due to awkwardness or anything to do with not being able to talk well, which she knew because Ruby was like that, but it seemed to be more deliberate.

Weiss and Yang looked at each other one more time before Weiss let out an audible 'humph' and walked past her. Yang felt her anger die down as the heiress made her way towards the evac point. Blake and Yang spared another glance before starting in the same direction.

After her and Weiss's encounter, the trek remained quiet. No one spoke up to one another, which allowed Yang to listen to the sounds of the forest. She could hear leaves rustling and birds chirping, but she could also hear distant yelling and gunfire, which made her excited. She loved fighting Grimm, that was part of the reason that she had wanted to become a huntress. The adventure and thrill of combat was intoxicating. She didn't know how killing Grimm was labeled a job and not a hobby. It seemed like everyone she had met that wanted to become huntsman was doing it for some noble reason and she was just doing it for the hell of it. Saying that in her head made Yang feel shallow for not taking her future line of work as seriously as others. Maybe she was just overthinking it. Yang shook her head to try and not focus on it too much since she needed to keep her mind on the task at hand.

Dawn started to peak over the horizon. The clouded sky became a whirlwind of purple and orange that slightly illuminated the forest. The stars began to fade. The sounds of commotion were getting louder meaning they had almost made it. Yang hoped Ruby was fine. She was capable, but her being out there still worried Yang.

A Beowolf howled in the distance which was soon followed by a shout. Blake's head snapped back towards the sound, her expression was painted with unease and her hand twitched on the hilt of her weapon.

"You alright?"

Blake was startled by Yang's sudden intrusion, but she quickly settled and sighed, "Yeah." Blake avoided saying anymore than that and broke eye contact with Yang almost instantly. Yang irritation from Blake avoiding her resurfaced and she felt herself compelled to not let the conversation end there.

"Look," Yang sighed, "I get that we're not in the best situation to talk—but maybe you could say —like a full sentence?" Blake didn't turn towards her immediately, her face still focused on her path. But after a little more walking, Blake finally spoke up.

"What's there to talk about?"

Yang scrunched her face up, "I don't know? Maybe why you've been avoiding every one of us." Yang earned a glance from Blake for that comment, and she paused for a moment. Blake stared off into the forest, her face reflective.

"There's something wrong with this test," Blake muttered. Yang detected the slight apprehension laced with Blake's words.

"What?" Yang asked confused.

Blake knew she had heard what she said and decided to clarify, "I mean that there hasn't been anything that has _really_ been hard," she glanced over at Yang, "It just doesn't make sense." Yang knew exactly what she was talking about. This was a test that was supposed to decide if you're capable enough to get into Beacon Academy. One of the four major schools in Remnant. It shouldn't be this easy. "That's why I've been quiet: I'm waiting for something to happen."

Yang slightly frowned, "That's it? I've been waiting for something to happen, but I can at least talk a little—"

'CAW!'

Yang nearly tripped over herself at the sudden noise interrupting her conversation with Blake. On instinct, she cocked Ember Celica and swiveled around to meet whatever had made the noise head on. She was met by nothing but a couple trees. Everyone had turned around and was staring at Yang.

"Calm down," Weiss said, "It was just a raven." Yang felt her eyes roll in annoyance at being called out by the heiress.

"Well excuse me for getting startled." Yang had turned back towards Weiss and readied herself for another onslaught of insults.

"Maybe if you had been paying more attention to your surrounding, then you wouldn't have been startled," Weiss said. Blake rolled her eyes and was about to say something before Weiss interjected, continuing to slight Yang.

"Honestly, how can someone like Professor Ozpin let someone so unqualified come and participate in his initiation exam?" Weiss prepared herself for an insult to be thrown back her way—but was surprised to find that Yang wasn't the next one to speak up.

"Shut up!" Blake hissed. Both Yang and Weiss's heads wiped around to retort to Blake's intrusion, but Blake was holding up one finger in a silencing manner. Her bow seemed to twitch as she tilted her head trying to listen to the sounds of the forest. Everyone was silent as she looked around like she was trying to find something that she had lost.

After a minute of silence, Weiss's annoyance built up and she scoffed, "What do you think you're doing?" Blake didn't gratify Weiss with a response, she just kept her finger up instead.

Blake just stood there while everyone else waited in confusion. The forest was slightly shaken by an early morning breeze whispering through the trees. It crept up on the group of girls and most of them shivered sept for Weiss and Blake. The chilled wind blew by and left the woods completely quiet. Yang shuffled around still in front of Weiss from their argument, which was now completely diffused by Blake. The young blonde eyed Weiss who met her gaze with a look that had lost a lot of its anger and was now filled with bewilderment.

Yang spoke up feeling the awkwardness of the situation, "Uhhh… Blake?"

"Shhh, listen," she said staring into the darkness of the forest, "You hear that?"

Yang perked up and focused on listening to the sounds around her. Nothing immediately jumped out at her except for the snapping of a couple of branches that her teammates were stepping on. She strained her ears further trying to pick up anything, but even the sounds of fighting in the distance were now gone replaced by nothing but silence. What was Blake hearing that she wasn't?

"I don't hear anything." Yang's attention was again gained by Weiss. The pale girl had her arms crossed clearly annoyed by Blake.

"Exactly—it's quieter than it was before," Blake responded with a hint of paranoia. She had her hand on the grip of her weapon and looked as if she was about to need to cut down an attacker. The black metal of her blade gleamed in the fading moonlight.

"So?" Weiss asked trying to make sense of Blake's actions. "There is probably a Grimm nearby, that kind of thing happens when they show up." Yang actually found herself agreeing with Weiss. She remembered her dad talking about how to know if there's a Grimm nearby when she was just starting her training. They had been out in a sandy clearing near the house when her father noticed that the early morning birds weren't chirping. He told Yang about how Grimm could make sound essentially disappear with just their presence. She remembered this in detail because that happened to also be the same day that she had killed her first Beowolf.

"Uh, yeah—Blake, that's pretty normal," Yang said feeling the need to voice her opinion.

Blake shook her head, "No...this is something different." Yang felt herself lean in wanting Blake to elaborate on her thought, but Blake said nothing else, she only continued to look out into the forest with insecurity. Blake sighed and finally looked away from her point of interest, "Maybe… Maybe I'm just being too paranoid?"

Yang felt herself relax a little at Blake's remark. The dark-haired girl had definitely seemed to be on edge, maybe it was just her paranoia catching up to her. But for some reason, Yang felt inclined to agree with Blake that something wasn't right; honestly, something about the darkness unsettled her now. Yang didn't know how to explain it, but it almost seemed like the forest was moving. She could understand how someone could get lost or even go crazy in these woods.

The girl who had been near the front of the convoy most of the time spoke up, "Maybe we should just keep going?"

"Thank you!" Weiss said starting forward yet again, but jumped and screamed in surprise as a flock of birds bust out of the forest and over her head.

Yang snickered, "Calm down. They're just birds." Weiss deadpanned at Yang clearly not appreciating her comment.

"Shut up."

Yang laughed and was about to continue on with Weiss and the rest of the group when the scream of a girl reached her ears. She got back into her fighting stance. Her senses were alert yet again and she felt her aura course through her. Her spine shivered at the scream, but what came next made her heat stop. The scream had been followed up by a loud screech. She felt a sinking feeling as the screech spanned on longer than anything she had heard before. It felt like hours before the sound ceased and all that was left was an intense feeling of dread. No one moved as they were all petrified and frozen from shock.

The girl who had suggested continuing forward started to stutter, "Wha—what was that?" No one graced her question with an answer because no one knew themselves. They were all clueless as to what had made that sound. Yang searched her mind for anything that would serve as an explanation, but came up with nothing.

"Well I don't want to find out," another one of the girls said turning in the direction of evac. The rest of them wordlessly agreed and everyone followed suit...except for Yang.

Blake turned back around from the absence of the blonde. "Yang?" Yang didn't look at Blake, instead her eyes were glued to the raven that had startled her minutes ago; it hadn't flown off like the rest of the birds in the vicinity, which peaked Yang's interest as it stared directly at her.

Weiss had stopped as well. "Yang, we need to go you dolt," Weiss beckoned as the rest of the group vanished into the darkness of the forest ahead.

Yang still didn't budge and continued to look at the raven as it continued to make more noise. Something about the bird made Yang feel uneasy as it seemed to call to her, telling her something was wrong.

"Yang, it's just a stupid bird," Weiss snapped. The raven 'cawed' one more time before flying off straight towards the screeching. Yang cocked her head and stepped forward gingerly as if she was scared to move. She stopped right under where the bird had been and she looked in the direction of the monstrous noise. The leaves over her head swayed and a wind blew through her hair. A certain tension had been carried by the wind and it filled the air around the three girls.

Another screech pierced the quietness of the girls and Blake cringed at how loud it was. "Yang—please, we need to go now or—"

'CAW!'

Blake's sentence was interrupted by the sound of the same bird which was now back again. It sat on a tree near Yang and stared directly at her. The scream of a girl again filled the air as it had before and the raven flew in the same direction towards the sound again 'cawing' as it went.

Yang's eyes widened, "No…Ruby" And with that, she bolted into the woods.

Blake and Weiss were left in the dust. "Wait! Yang!" Blake yelled after her as she pushed herself in the same direction as the blonde had went. "Weiss, come on!" She yelled behind her. Weiss stood confused for a second before letting out an irritated growl and followed after Blake and Yang.

* * *

Ruby pushed against the Ursa that was still on top of her trying to make use of every muscle that she had so that she could help Jaune, who was getting thrown around as if he were nothing. It wasn't that he wasn't putting up a fight, because he was: the Beringel had a couple nicks in its plating and the huge crack across its chestplating from Jaune's first strike with her scythe. But that was hardly enough to stop it from killing him.

The Grimm and Jaune were now staring each other down and were both ready to charge. And even though the expression on Jaune's face was etched with determination, Ruby could tell that he had very little left in him. Apart from the fact that Jaune's aura was hanging on by a thread, his balance was off and he looked concussed, bruises were all over his body, and blood was plastered to his ripped clothing, but the worst injury he had sustained was to his thigh. Blood was steadily flowing out of the large gash across his leg and he walked with a limp. It was obvious that Jaune could only hold on for so much longer, which scared Ruby.

Other than the brief conversations over the last few hours, Jaune was a stranger to her. He seemed nice, and from what Yang had told her about him, he was sort of awkward, which she could relate to. But other than that, she knew nothing. She didn't know anything about his life, what he likes to do, or even his semblance. He was an enigma to her… which confused her. Why would a guy that she didn't know anything about put his life on the line to save her, a girl that he had just he was only following the rules of the test and was determined not to leave her to die, but risking his life to do so? It didn't make sense.

The Beringel snarled and screeched which signaled to Jaune that he needed to get ready to swing. Ruby watched as he drunkenly rose the scythe up in an aggressive manner, but then dropped it down to his chest as to absorb the incoming hit the Beringel was about to deliver. Ruby knew what that transition meant: he was too tired to swing the blade. She had had the same problem in her early stages of using the scythe. The movement required to swing the blade put a lot of strain on a person's arms, and then that person would find themselves in a position where it was impossible to swing due to their muscles locking up. Jaune was in that situation since he had put so much weight into his first few swings. This meant that he was going to have no choice but to take the blows full force.

The Beringel screeched and then ran at Jaune. The boy pushed his feet into the ground as hard as he could seeming to ignore the pain in his thigh and readied himself for the blow. The Grimm held nothing back as it crashed into Jaune and smacked him several yards back onto the edge of a nearby pond. Ruby could hear the breath leaving Jaune's lungs as he soared and saw the determination leave his face. His aura flickered as he slammed into the sandy ground.

Ruby started to panic. She needed to get out now if she was going to save Jaune from being slaughtered. Ruby sucked in air and readied her arms to push as hard as they could. She grabbed the side of the Ursa and began to push. She could feel the strain on her body as her legs started to become unwedged. Her body had moved only a little bit, even with all of her strength, but she continued trying to get out. Nothing was going to make her stop trying.

Her arms ached as she felt her entire body begin to slide out from under the Ursa. Her torso made its way out, then her legs, and then eventually her feet. Ruby broke free from under the disappearing Grimm and she rolled back from where she had been. Her head shot up and her eyes tried to find where Jaune was now. Her gaze drifted over an area and rested on the now gasping teen who was trying to crawl towards the scythe that had been knocked out of his hands.

Ruby shot up from where she was and sprinted towards him, desperate to reach her scythe. The Beringel had yet to notice her and it still had Jaune in its sights. She needed to get the Grimm away from Jaune and maybe lure it away from evac, and hopefully allow enough time for Jaune to make his way towards their destination.

Ruby squinted and locked her sight on her weapon. She would have to grab it quickly and get in front of Jaune to protect him from getting hit again, and then she would just have to wing it from there. She got to her legs and began to approach the Beringel from the back, as to give herself the element of surprise. She took in a deep breath and picked up her pace.

With the Grimm's back turned directly to her, she would have to dive through the legs of it. This type of battle would be much easier if she could use her semblance, but her aura had been drained by that Ursa, and with that, one of her best assets had been taken away from her. This really was going to be one of the hardest battles she had ever fought. No aura, no semblance, and no one to lean on. She was on her own. Ruby released the breath that she had been holding and felt her feet naturally dive and her whole body slid across the ground, kicking up dirt along the way. The Beringel didn't have enough time to react to her sliding under it and all it could do was stumble back from surprise.

Ruby's slide got her all the way to the side of Jaune, who was still clawing at the ground trying to get to her scythe. His reaction to her sliding up next him was similar to the Beringel's in that he could only look surprised. Ruby quickly grabbed her scythe and spun it around towards the Beringel, which gave out a loud screech.

"Ruby, wha—what are you doing? You need to run!" Jaune yelled at her before letting out a series of pained coughs. His condition was bad, but he still had some aura left, which would help close up some of the wounds covering his body. Jaune got to his feet with a grunt and stumbled sightly.

"I'm not going to run." Ruby stood grounded to the spot and prepared herself to fight by switching her weapon into its gun form and taking aim at the creature. The Beringel had switched its gaze away from Jaune and was now staring at her, which sent a chill up her back. There was nothing more terrifying than staring into the eyes of a Grimm; it was like staring into a deep dark endlessness that sucked away any feeling of security or comfort. Ruby made an effort to stare anywhere but its eyes, but couldn't pull away from the trance she was in. She felt her finger that was on the trigger loosen.

"Ruby, you need to—"

Ruby cut him off quickly, "Are you alright?" The question seemed dumb in concept, but she didn't know what else to say. Of course he wasn't alright. Nothing about their situation was alright.

Jaune looked confused for one second before a haggard laugh escaped his lips. "Are there two of you?"

"What?" Ruby looked down at him.

"So you don't by any chance have a clone?"

"I—I don't think so." Jaune's eyes looked like they were swirling all over the place.

"Then I'm not alright," Jaune managed to say before wincing in pain.

Ruby wanted to help him up and get him to safety but the shaking of the earth quickly reminded why that wasn't possible. "Any tips on how to take it down?"

"You know—uh...try stabbing it." Jaune's breathing started to steady as he strained himself to stand up.

"Not helping," Ruby deadpanned.

Jaune shook his head. "Yeah, sorry," he said now standing hunched over, "I made a pretty good dent in its chestplate. Try to hit that."

The cracked plating stood out from the rest of the creature. The break left portions of the blackness underneath visible to Ruby; it stood out like a sore thumb. That had to be their saving grace—their only chance. Ruby wasn't confident that she would be able to kill this thing before, but now the tides had turned. There was hope. It filled her with more vigor than before and she breathed in. She flipped her scythe out of its rifle mode and moved towards their aggressor.

Instead of the Beringel running at Ruby, she threw herself into the vicinity of the beast and swung her scythe to deflect the huge hand that was threatening to smash down on her. The creature let out a huff as the young girl threw herself at it again. Over and over again, the creature continued trying to smash Ruby, only to be deflected each and every time. Ruby knew she had to do more than deflect hits if she was going to reach the break, but her lack of aura was preventing her from doing so.

The Beringel brought up its heavy hand and attempted to stomp on Ruby again, but she had jerked back, just out of reach of the bone-crushing blow, and the hand only met the ground. Ruby circled to its left to try and strike its arm, but the beast circled around as well to meet her. The Beringel pressed forward and Ruby was forced to back up. She was careful not to trip on any of the rocks littering the forest floor because it would most definitely be certain death if she were to fall. The Beringel attacked again, but Ruby leapt back trying to keep her distance. Ruby tried to circle back to the left and try the same maneuver as last time, but was only met with more vicious swipes, she danced back again. She was now getting frustrated by the fact that she was getting nowhere close to the cracked plating.

"Ruby!" Ruby's attention was grabbed by Jaune who was still sitting on the ground holding his leg. "Keep making it chase you around, it's getting tired!" The movements of the Grimm were visibly more fatigued than when it was fighting Jaune. Its heavier punches were becoming less powerful.

She had seen this same effect on Grimm when her uncle Qrow would fight them. As she continued to dance around the monster, the memory of Qrow teaching her how to fight an Ursa Major came back to Ruby.

Qrow often visited Ruby and Yang when he wasn't out fighting Grimm, and when Ruby told him that she wanted him to teach her about using a scythe, those visits became more frequent. Her uncle was widely known for being one of the best scythe wielders in Remnant, so Ruby felt like it was a perfect chance for her to get a jumpstart on her training. Almost every day, Qrow would teach her about the intricacies of wielding and fighting with a scythe, and every day, she would be there gawking at his skill.

One day, Qrow thought it would be appropriate for Ruby to learn how to take on enemies that were bigger than her, and he showed her how to tire out her enemy by running around. Qrow found a Ursa Major and made her watch as he simply stayed out of range of the Grimm instead of attacking it. It was disorienting to watch him as he jetted around the area at lightning fast speeds. Eventually, the Ursa became fatigued, which allowed Qrow to swoop in and finish it off. The whole experience had amazed her and opened up her eyes to how to take on things that threatened her.

This thing was by no means an Ursa, but the same logic applied: she would have to tire it out and then go for its chest. She sidestepped yet another blow that was coming at her. The Beringel was angry and was advancing hard at her. Ruby scrambled back and parried each punch to the best of her ability. She scurried back yet again to put distance between her and her aggressor.

As the Beringel stumbled around trying to gain its bearings back, Ruby could make out the pained grunts of Jaune. From the looks of him, he was in a massive amount of pain. She didn't quite realize how damaged his leg was, but now that she had time to look him over thoroughly, she couldn't imagine how he was standing. The profuse amount of blood that had been draining from it had stopped for the most part, but that allowed the mangled skin and muscle to stand out among the bruises and his other injuries. His aura was definitely too weak to heal him in his current state and if his body stayed this way for much longer, then he would would definitely pass out, making the situation they were in worse.

Jaune tore the sleeve off his sweatshirt, which was hanging on by a couple threads, and pressed it up against his thigh. The boy winced, trying to suppress a scream, as he applied more pressure to the wound and began to wrap the makeshift bandage around it. Jaune stayed in a hunched over position seemingly trying cope with extreme amount of pain that he was experiencing. Slowly, he straightened himself out and leaned on his one good leg to support his body. He strained himself to stumble around to meet Ruby's worried gaze. His blue eyes bore into her own as he panted from how much he was pushing his body.

"Jaune," the sound of Ruby's voice made Jaune's head lift up slightly, "You need to try to get to the evacuation site as quick as possible so you can get that leg fixed before you pass out!" She wasn't confident that he could make it, but he couldn't just stand there and die. Jaune's legs wobbled as he drunkenly tried to find his balance; in the process, the bottoms of his feet splashed in the pond he had landed near. He looked confused by the fact he was standing in water and Ruby watched as he looked up over the expanse of the pond. The water was a purplish color, of which resembled a bruise, due to the brightening skies above them. They didn't have much time before the ship that they needed to get on would get to the forest.

Jaune's eyes were glued to the water and the expression on his face didn't give away anything to Ruby about what he was thinking. Growing slightly annoyed by Jaune's inactivity, Ruby spoke up again, "Jaune! Please—you need to try to run back and maybe get help. I can give you enough time to get away and then I can follow you." Unphased by Ruby's statement, Jaune slightly cocked his head in thought looking more deeply at the expanse of water in front of him. Ruby grew desperate to get Jaune's attention as she heard the huffs from the approaching Beringel. "Listen to me, Jaune! You have to go get—"

"I have an idea," Jaune said with wide eyes. His breathing accelerated partially as he moved back slowly from the edge of the pond.

"What?" Ruby asked still feeling a massive amount of dread due to the earth shaking below her reminding her that they were still in immediate danger.

"I know what we need to do." Jaune's head whipped around to face Ruby. His expression was significantly more excited than before. "Do you have any shock crystals?"

"Uhhh...no." His shoulders dropped at her comment. The excitement left his face as a grim look took over his expression.

"Jaune?" Jaune stared at her again clearly considering something. His face looked exactly like how Ozpin's did before he asked her if she had wanted to attend Beacon early. Both expressions were reflective, withdrawn, and almost... regretful. Ozpin had looked remorseful about the fact that she had agreed to attend, like he had made a mistake, and now Jaune looked at her with that same remorse.

He finally built up the nerve to say something after seconds of silence, "Ruby...I need to go get my sword." The sound of trees being torn apart tore through the forest as another screech was released from the Beringel.

"No—you're in no condition to fight," Ruby continued, "You need to conserve what's left of your aura." Jaune's expression continued to look grave as he stared off into the dark forest. It almost looked like he was being called by the vast expanse of trees that stood in front of them. His unlaced shoes responded to the call by pushing his body forward.

"You don't understand, if we lure that thing into the water, then I can use my sword and—" Jaune's explanation was abruptly cut off by the Beringel breaking through the forest line in a full sprint. Jaune's gasp filled the air as he was caught off guard by the Beringel and stumbled back. The monster had locked onto Ruby and swung its fist at her trying to capitalize off of her unpreparedness. Ruby rose Crescent Rose as fast as possible and managed to absorb the hit with minimal damage to herself, but was flung back through the air.

She managed to land, albeit unsteadily, on her feet. She flipped a switch on her snath that triggered the mechanisms in her scythe to come to life. Gears turned and screeched to convert her weapon into its rifle mode. Ruby quickly discharged serval shots and empty cartridges flew through the air and eventually layered the ground. She didn't have any special rounds which complicated her situation as the Beringel barely flinched as each shot attempted to pierce its skin. As shots pinged off its armor, the Beringel moved towards her at an accelerated pace with a new deathly feel about it. Panicking, Ruby tried to flip the switch to transform her scythe back into its regular form but her scythe's mechanisms didn't work fast enough as she watched a hand throw itself at her.

Ruby dove to her right and was fortunate enough to dodge another powerful attack, but her balance was thrown off as she tried to get back up from where she had ended up. Her legs temporarily gave out and she fumbled back down to the ground. It felt like she was significantly heavier than before. Ruby tried to crawl to her Crescent Rose, but she was interrupted by the screech of the Beringel, which was now lumbering towards her. The vibrations its steps made in the ground paralyzed her and its breathing became louder and louder. She hadn't been quick enough. If she had been more alert, then she might've been able to take the Beringel down herself, but now she was sprawled out on the ground reaching for her scythe which was a couple paces from her.

Ruby let her arm fall completely to the ground in defeat. She was going to die. Her scythe was too far away and she couldn't push her body into getting up, all she could do was lay there and listen to the successive grunts of the Beringel as it got closer. Ruby closed her eyes. There was nothing she could do; she had failed her uncle. He had taught her exactly how to handle situations like these but she hadn't followed his instructions. She should've been prepared for the Beringel; she should've kept moving instead of using her rifle; she should've been better. No one and nothing was here to save her now… no one was here for her.

" _Shhhh—Ruby, I will always be here for you."_

The warm sound of her mom's voice played out in her head. Her mother's words danced around her head like a lullaby trying to put her to sleep.

" _You'll never be alone."_

Ruby didn't remember much about her mom, but something about those words were unforgettable. They had stuck with her through all these years, and even through her mother wasn't here physically, she still didn't feel alone. The soothing touch of Summer lingered and made her forget her fear, her pain, and even the Beringel. Ruby felt her body relax as she laid on the ground. She would again get to feel what her embrace was like soon enough. Ruby was almost content with dying if it meant she would get to see her mother again and she breathed out slowly. Even though the sounds of the Beringel were muffled, she could tell that they were over her body. She braced herself for the weight of the beast to kill her.

...

However, nothing happened. She didn't feel the weight of the Beringel crushing her. She didn't hear anything grunting or screeching. It was deathly quiet, and she was still alive. Ruby forced her eyes open and curiously looked up.

Ruby let out a surprised gasp as her gaze was met with a girl standing over her with a shield positioned between her and the Beringel. The red headed girl grunted as she pushed up as hard as she could and forced the Beringel back. It stumbled backwards and was stunned as much as Ruby was at the appearance of this girl who had come out of nowhere.

Ruby laid there dumbstruck by her savior who was now diving into the Beringel with an intense level of ferocity and rose her shield and sword up into an attacking position. The beast had little time to react and threw its arm at its new foe haphazardly. The girl checked each blow that was thrown at her, lithely gliding over rock and root, her green eyes not leaving her target.

Ruby shook her head getting rid of her acceptance of death and looked back to where her scythe had landed, but instead of seeing her weapon, she was surprised to find an extended hand offering her some help up. She looked up to see who it belonged to and was greeted by a dark-haired boy who looked down at her with magenta eyes. Ruby sighed in relief and grabbed his outstretched hand. He pulled her up onto her feet. "We heard you and that thing from where we were and decided to see what was happening," he said gesturing towards the Beringel. Ruby's eyes quickly locked onto another girl that had been behind the boy. She had orange hair and was wielding a hammer.

The orange-haired girl made her way up next to the boy. "Come on, Ren! We can't let Pyrrha have all the fun," she said before running to join the red-haired girl. Ruby had sworn she had heard the name Pyrrha before. Maybe on the news somewhere?

"Nora, wait!" And with that, the three people who had come to her rescue were now fighting the Beringel. Their presence pushed the beast back and it screeched in anger.

Pyrrha was in front, parrying the onslaught of punches with her shield, while Ren was firing what looked like two bladed pistols at the left side of the Beringel, and Nora was swinging her hammer at its legs. Ruby was caught up in watching them that she had almost totally forgot about Crescent Rose. She searched the forest floor trying to find where it was. She became confused when he eyes fell upon a pair of brown boots. Ruby's eyes made their way up from where the boots had been and was pleasantly surprised by what she was greeted by.

"I think you dropped something, Sis," Yang said holding Crescent Rose in her direction.

"Yang," Ruby sighed. She had never been more happy to see her sister than right now. She had been close to death only moments ago, and now she was face to face with Yang who was smirking at her. Ruby choked back a sob, pushed Crescent Rose out of the way, and pulled her sister into a tight embrace. "I thought I was going to die," Ruby sobbed pushing her face into the crest of Yang's neck.

Yang's initial surprise quickly subsided as she wrapped her arms around Ruby. "Die?" Yang laughed slightly. "Nothing is going to happen to you while I'm still around." Ruby had been selfish. She had been so prepared to die and had forgotten about her sister and everyone else who loved her. She couldn't bare the thought of leaving them and cursed herself for being fine with the idea before. Yang and Ruby cherished the embrace and stayed like that until someone grunted from behind Yang.

Yang opened her eyes in annoyance. "Way to ruin the moment, Weiss." Yang let go of Ruby and turned to face the girl whose arms were crossed.

"I think there are bigger problems than your reunion," Weiss said gesturing towards the Beringel. It had gotten over its shock from its new adversaries and had managed to push the trio back from their attacking position. Pyrrha was slowly moving back, firing a rifle of sorts, while Nora was behind her firing her own weapon at the Beringel. Ren tried to leap forward and slice at its arms, but was forcibly slapped away and landed just in front of where Blake, who had come up from behind Weiss, stood.

Yang cocked her weapons and Weiss and Blake did the same. Ruby quickly picked up Crescent Rose and pressed the button switch to transform it into its rifle mode.

"So how are we going to kill this thing?" Weiss asked unholstering her rapier from her side.

"Ruby," Ruby turned to Yang who was in her combat stance, "You're the one who was fighting it, so do you have any ideas?" Yang asked staring down their target.

Ruby thought about how to respond, "Yeah—there's a crack across its chest that Jaune made. We need to try and tire it out—"

"Wait—Jaune?" Yang asked baffled.

* * *

Jaune pushed his way back towards where he remembered losing his weapon. He had felt useless watching as Ruby had to take on the Beringel by herself, so his mind had went to retrieving his weapon. He knew how to kill this thing and it required the power of the shock crystal that outlined his blade.

Jaune limped forward with haste. His leg stung with an insufferable amount of pain. The wound that he had sustained was making his trek all the more difficult. What was left of his aura was trying its hardest to close up the gash that marked his thigh. The steady stream of blood that had been oozing out of his wound before had stopped, but the intensity of the pain had only risen.

He tried not to focus on it too much as he retraced his steps towards his sword. The sounds of fighting were still apparent and eased his mind since that meant the Beringel was still being fought. But he had noticed the sounds that he was hearing were completely foreign to him and he didn't hear the discharge of Crescent Rose among them, which made him panic that something had happened to Ruby. The thought made him press on even quicker.

Jaune knew that he hadn't gone far from where he had left his sword behind to get to Ruby, so he had to be close to where it had been. Jaune searched the forest around him, but nothing stood out to him. He didn't recognize anything significant; nothing to tell him where his sword was or even if he was going in the right direction. His paranoia kicked in as he looked from tree to tree and only found empty branches. He hopped forward and still was exposed to the same thing. Thoughts started to go through his head.

 _What if I don't find it?_

 _What if Ruby has to fight it alone?_

 _What if she dies because I left her? What would happen?_

Jaune was jarred back into reality when his foot caught a root and he fell. His body hit the ground with enough force to make him grunt. His foot stayed stuck on the root and pulled his leg back. A tremendous amount of pain shot up Jaune's leg and all he could do was scream through clenched teeth. Jaune shook his foot so that the claws of the tree root would release it from its grip. The root let go and Jaune quickly flipped into a sitting position and held his leg in pain.

The clots in the wound reopened and blood started to flow out of it again. It was like seeing hot needles were pushing their way into his thigh. Jaune rested his head on his knee in defeat. He was going to die out here in this forest and never be found. His mom was going to have to deal with the news that her only son had been too weak to get past an entrance exam and had died a failure. She had spent long hours working so that he could get to this point, and he was going to repay her by dying? The idea sickened Jaune. And what about his older sister? She had apparently breezed through Beacon's entrance exam, so how was she going to take the news that her brother was bested by a damn ape?

Jaune felt a tear escape his closed eyes. He really wasn't meant to be a huntsmen. This test had taken every ounce of motivation out of him and spit on it.

Jaune laid back, his head meeting the ground with a suppressed 'umph'. At least he would die under a beautiful sky. The sun was going to break the horizon soon and colors of purple and orange painted the expanse above him. Clouds absorbed the colors and mingled with the fading stars. Jaune closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. It was actually kind of peacef—

'CAW!'

Jaune was startled up by the loud noise. His eyes quickly scanned the treetops to find a raven sitting on a branch above his head. The bird looked at him with one eye and ruffled its feathers. Jaune cocked his head and studied the bird before it flew to a branch adjacent to the one it had been on.

It made another call before flying to yet another adjacent branch. Jaune narrowed his eyes and looked to where the bird was perched. Slowly, his eyes drifted down the trunk of the tree until he was met with probably the most beautiful sight he had seen in a while: his sword and sheath were swaying back and forth on a low hanging branch that was only a couple feet from him.

Jaune felt his body become rejuvenated and he pumped his fists in the sky. Jaune pushed off the ground and limped over to his weapon. The pain in his leg became irrelevant to him as he grabbed the hilt of his blade and drew it from the sheath. He sighed in relief. He was on the clock though. He needed to get back to Ruby.

Jaune pushed himself forward using his good leg and almost used his sword as a crutch as he moved back through the forest again. He moved with a new spunk and sped through where he had struggled to even walk before. The sounds of fighting became louder as he approached where he had left Ruby to fight the Beringel. The sounds of new guns were undeniably present now and Jaune's worry came back as he burst the very shrubbery he had left Ruby through.

The sight of seven bodies surrounding one large Grimm was the first thing that came into vision. He spotted Ruby among these said bodies and he felt his worry subside. He hadn't failed her. Jaune also noticed that Yang was among the group who were fighting the Beringel. He quickly moved in their direction and came up behind the cloaked girl.

"Ruby!" She turned at the sound of her name and her eyes widened.

"Jaune? What happened to you?" Ruby asked looking at his reopened wound and falling back from the group that was currently in combat.

"It doesn't matter—I have a plan," Jaune said pulling his sword up from where it had been dragging the ground. "You need to lure it into that pond," he said pointing in the direction of the body of water. The pond was barely visible behind the cluster of trees that were in front of it, but Ruby was able to make it out.

"Is that it?" Ruby question sounded skeptical.

"Just—trust me...I can handle it from there."

Ruby looked at the pond for a second before turning back to him and nodding. She threw herself away from Jaune and back into the action. Jaune watched as his teammate gained the attention of the others and relayed his message to each one of them. He saw each pair of eyes look at him in confusion and that triggered him to join them. The orange-haired girl continued to fight the Beringel as to give time for them to understand completely what they were going to do.

Once he was in their vicinity, Yang spoke up, "Mind telling us how you plan to get that thing," she pointed to the Beringel, "into that pond over there and why that's a good idea?"

Jaune stepped forward and partially lifted his bad leg. He hadn't thought his idea out completely, but the fact that there was now eight of them made it a lot easier to carry out. Everyone of them looked at him expectantly and waited for a response. He looked them all over, took a breath in, and spoke, "We obviously need some way to force it back and into the pond, but seeing as it isn't really afraid of us, we're not going to be able to just make it retreat, so we need to lure it." Jaune looked down in thought. This was the part of the plan he hadn't thought about in detail.

"Why don't we just run out into the lake so that it will follow us?" The question came from the white-haired girl who stood near Ruby.

"No—nobody can be in or near the water for this plan to work," Jaune said with his head still looking down in thought. The space went quiet and the only sounds came from the ongoing fight with the Beringel and the other girl who was doing surprisingly well holding it back. The silence unsettled Jaune and he looked up to only be met with six anxious stares. He looked around at each of them, confused by their expressions. "What?"

Ruby looked around before answering, "Uh—Jaune?" He looked directly at her. "What is your plan after we get it into the water?"

Jaune now understood why they were confused: they didn't know about the capabilities of his sword. He lifted it up and put it on display for the rest of them. "When I was making my sword, I wanted it to have an ability that set it apart from other weapons, so I built this into it," Jaune gestured and traced the length of the shock crystal that made up his outer blade. "I can push aura into my hilt and engage the crystal which makes electricity. So my plan is—"

"—you're going to electrocute the water." Jaune's explanation was finished by the girl across from him. Her green eyes bore into his and sent the message the to him to she understood. Jaune nodded and everyone looked at one another.

"Do you think that will really work?" Yang probbed.

"It should." That was the best answer Jaune could give, but that was the best idea he could come up with at this moment. Every one of their faces spoke volumes about what each of them were thinking. Each of them showed signs of nervousness, uncertainty, and doubt, but even more than that, they all looked hopeful.

"Why don't we just run away?" Jaune's thoughts were interrupted by the same girl who had been standing next to Ruby. He wasn't going to lie, she was beautiful. Her white hair was tied in a ponytail and her eyes almost sparkled. He hadn't looked up when she had asked her previous question, and he almost regretted it. Maybe after this he could ask her if she would want to go out on a date or something? He shook off the thought; he needed to focus on what was happening right now instead of the future.

"Because I barely outran it with all of my aura available, and I'm assuming most of you don't have much aura left as is," he continued, "and besides, we would just be putting more people in danger by leading it towards evac." They all went silent and looked down.

"You said we needed to bait it into the water, right?" Jaune nodded at the dark-haired girl who had spoken up. She looked at him dead in the eye which somewhat intimidated Jaune. "I think I can get it into the water without us actually being near the pond."

"And I think I can get it to ignore us long enough to take the bait," the only other boy there said.

Jaune felt his esteem rise in response to them having solutions to the holes in his idea. "Then let's hear it."

* * *

After a couple moments of planning, the ragtag group of teenagers had been able to formulate a plan that everyone felt confident about. It required all of them to be absolutely precise in their tasks and if one of them failed, then the plan would crumble.

They had split up into groups to fill their roles and make sure everything would work. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Pyrrha would be the group that would make sure the Beringel was occupied and lead it to where it was supposed to go while Blake and Nora set up the bait, which left Ren and himself to camp out in the brush next to the water and wait for their task.

The two boys sat in silence, neither of them daring to make a sound in fear that something would go wrong. Jaune quietly checked his scroll to know exactly how long they had before their ride would leave. His clock showed him that they only had around half an hour to make their plan work, which meant that they were going to have to hurry. After thinking the whole idea over again in his head, Jaune had his doubts about the whole thing. Saying that if one thing didn't go right that their whole plan would fail wasn't him just being paranoid: it was a legitimate concern. Everyone played a part and each part required that person to deliver what they had been assigned to do. If one of them failed, then they all failed.

Ren seemed to notice Jaune's worried expression as he spoke in a hushed tone, "Worry will only increase our chances of failure." Jaune's head slowly turned towards him.

"Are you saying you're not worried?" Jaune asked with his back resting up against an oak tree. The bark scraped up against his back which was now practically naked from the hole in his jacket. Jaune flinched at the bark's rough surface, but was quickly reminded that he had worse problems when the aching in his leg came back to him.

Ren looked over at him from his hiding spot and his eyes traced the gash in his leg. He had to have noticed Jaune limping when they had gone to where they were supposed to be, but it seemed like he was getting his first good look at it as his face scrunched up slightly. Jaune had to agree with the message that Ren's face was giving off. His leg didn't look too good. The intiatial hit had only done a faction of the damage that was currently there. He had pushed himself during his fight with the Beringel and then add the fact that he had ran through the forest and ate shit because of a root. Jaune wasn't confident that his aura would be able to heal his wound completely, and even if by some miracle it did, then he would be left with a pretty big scar.

Jaune averted his eyes from looking at it and decided to focus on something else that would take his mind off of being in pain. Jaune's attention was immediately drawn to the water. The shimmer of the ripples in the pond danced across his vision and calmed him. It was nice to be able to sit back and forget what was happening.

Ren, however, didn't look out towards the water and instead stayed glued to Jaune. It wasn't until Jaune met Ren's gaze that the boy spoke, "Are you positive you're up for this?"

Almost immediately, Jaune threw out his reply, "Yes!" He understood where Ren was coming from, but he wasn't going to back out now. It wasn't just his fate that he held in his hands, it was everyone's, and he was not going to fail them. "We're going to kill this thing." Ren paused before nodding in understanding. He must've realized Jaune's determination and decided against trying to tell him differently. After all, Jaune was the only one who knew how his sword worked.

"I understand," Ren muttered sitting down completely on the grass. He holstered his weapons seeing no need to have them out at the moment. "Only vengeful people are passionate enough to want to kill something as bad as you."

Jaune scrunched his face in confusion, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Ren sighed, "It means we could easily run away. There are probably enough people at our evacuation to kill this Grimm with no issue, but you didn't want to go there." Despite his words, Ren's tone didn't seem patronizing; it almost sounded like he understood what he claimed Jaune was going through.

"No—I just didn't want anyone to get injured," Jaune felt those words leave his mouth with almost a bitter taste and he didn't understand why. That was honestly what he felt when deciding against going to the evac zone, so why did it almost feel wrong to say he didn't want anyone to get hurt?

"I can see that—but that's not the only reason why, correct?" The two teens stared each other down. Both unblinking as the wind carried an early morning breeze past them. The stare down continued until Jaune felt his eyes close and his head slump in defeat.

"I watched that—that thing murder a person in front of me… I watched it _crush_ him… no one deserves what happened to him," Jaune's hands tightened around the hilt of his sword. "The worst part was hearing him scream my name. I mean, I barely knew the guy and he called out for me to help him… maybe if I had been faster or stronger, then I could've saved him, but…. _Ughhh_!" The crystal in Jaune's sword briefly lit up as he let his rage course through him. Electricity cracked and snapped and then subsided with the light in the crystal fading as well. Jaune took in a heavy breath and tried to control himself as he continued to speak, "I could only imagine if I was in his place and how scared I would've been. And now, his family is going to have to deal with the fact that him, and his brother, are both dead… and I don't believe killing this Grimm will fix anything, but… maybe it will help me cope with someone dying in front of me," Jaune looked down, "I know that's selfish but I want to feel like I could avenge them in some way."

Ren could only stare at Jaune as he finished his explanation. The only sound that was left after his speech was the approaching sounds of gunshots and yelling signaling to the two that they were about to have to carry out their roles in the plan.

"That's not being selfish." Jaune looked up somewhat surprised by Ren's comment. "I understand how you feel…" Ren closed his eyes, looking reminiscent as he did. Jaune hadn't known Ren for long, but something about him made him feel comfortable, even in a situation like this. In a way, he kind of reminded Jaune of his mother who had the same air about her. The two were taken away from their thoughts, however, when the brush behind them started to produce sound. The sound promoted the two guys to look at each other before readying their weapons. It was time.

Ruby was the first to bust out of the brush followed by Weiss and Pyrrha, and then finally Yang who brought up the rear. The four girls rushed in their direction and slinked into the shrubbery they had been hiding in. Everyone of them except for Pyrrha were panting in exhaustion and slumped to the ground.

Pyrrha was the first to speak, "We managed to get it to follow us, but it's coming up faster than we had predicted. So Ren, you need to go ahead and do whatever it is you're planning on doing." Pyrrha's urgency made Jaune uneasy as he looked over to Ren. He hadn't really explained what exactly he had in mind when he said he could conceal them long enough for their plan to work, but Nora had confirmed that he could which made everyone just trust the fact he could.

"I'm on it," Ren said before putting his weapons down and closing his eyes. Jaune watched as the boy's hands lit up with a magenta glow that he could only assume was his aura. Ren concentrated and took a deep breath in as the glowing in front of him intensified. Jaune's anticipation rose as he observed the spectacle, but he felt dissatisfied when Ren simply dropped his hands down to his sides and let his breath out.

Jaune looked around at the girls who were just as confused as he was. "Is that it?" Weiss's question perfectly summed up how he was feeling in that moment. However, the question didn't get an answer as a screech pierced all of their ears and made them shield their heads with their hands to muffle the sound. The brush that the girls had came out of shook with an intensity that Jaune had now grown accustomed to. The Beringel pushed itself through the brambles and into their line of sight.

Pyrrha quickly switched her weapon into rifle mode and was about to take shots at the creature that was standing before them, but she was stopped by Ren's hand being held up in an attempt to stop her. Ren then whispered to everyone to not move and stay quiet. All of them were too panicked to question his logic and became deathly silent.

The Beringel, at first, had looked like it had known they were there, but now it was just looking around aimlessly. The beast stomped down and belted out yet another loud screech, but none of them dared to move. They all sat there petrified. Pure fear was sent down Jaune's spine as the beast stared directly at him, it sniffed the air and moved forward a bit. Jaune closed his eyes and held his breath as the Beringel came within a few feet of himself. He was certain he was going to get crushed by the large hand of the monster, but he still refused to move and trusted Ren's judgement.

The Grimm continued to stare at him, however, it quickly looked away as it heard a scream fill the air. Jaune recognized the part that Nora played in the plan and felt his shoulders slump a little bit. The Grimm looked around before another one of Nora's screams carried itself to them. The monster's attention was now drawn towards the display of fear and it lumbered past where Jaune and the rest of them were sitting. There was a collective sigh as the Beringel pushed through the treeline of the pond and looked out across its expanse.

Ren got into a crouched position and moved over to where the Beringel had made its way through the treeline and motioned to them that it was relatively safe to move now. All five of them moved to accompany Ren in looking out towards the Grimm which was now still gazing at the other side of the pond, which was where Nora was hidden.

Yang moved past Jaune and took a place next to Ren. She grabbed his shoulder. "What the hell was that?" Yang's voice, while hushed, was still full of irritation, and Jaune could understand why.

Ren was quick to respond however, "My semblance is a cloaking device. It erases someone's fear and makes them invisible to Grimm." Jaune now understood what Ren had done and why he had engaged his aura. He had cloaked them. He could've just told them that was his plan and it kind of pissed Jaune off that he hadn't relayed this information before, but it had worked so he couldn't be too irritated.

Nora screamed yet again from across the body of water and the Beringel locked its eyes on something out in the water. A figure was standing in the middle of the pond motionless and looking down. The Grimm made another shrill sound before charging towards the lone figure. Its weight sent giant waves through the water as it scrambled towards the figure with the intent to kill. The beast didn't slow as its target stood still and it rose up its arm in preparation to bring it down, but just as it was about it crush its prey, the figure disappeared and nothing was left there. The Beringel was left alone in the middle of the pond confused as to where its kill had gone.

"NOW JAUNE!"

Jaune threw himself out of his hiding spot along with the five others. He rushed over to the side of the pond and closed his eyes. He focused all of his energy into the hilt of his sword and the blade sparked to life with intensity. The Grimm could only watch as Jaune thrusted his sword into the water and the world turned completely white for a second. Electricity coursed through the water and lit up the entire forest. The Beringel stepped back in confusion before it let out a pained cry as the electricity surged through it.

Gunshots filled the air along with its screams as bullets flew through the air and struck the Grimm from every direction. The cacophonous amount of sound didn't stop and everyone continued to keep shooting while Jaune held his sword in the water. The Grimm stumbled around in pain before it let out one final cry and fell over. The gunshots and electricity subsided as the Beringel failed to get up from its grounded position. The forest returned to its calm state with the intense light show dissipating.

Jaune fell to his knees in exhaustion from the last of his aura being transferred into electricity. His leg screamed with more pain than what he had previously been going through because of his lack of aura, but… something about him felt almost better, like he had lost his aura but then instantly gained it back.

A voice sounded from behind him, "We did it." Jaune looked up in time to see a dark cloud emanating from the center of the pond and he could the relieved laughter from the people surrounding the small body of water. Jaune let out a chuckle before falling over from fatigue. He felt the world grow distant and the sounds of everyone cheering grow weak. Jaune heard nothing after that and the world went completely dark.

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

Let me start out this note by saying I am so sorry for the wait on this chapter. When I started this fic, I didn't really have a concrete direction with where I wanted it to go, but now that I actually had time to think about it, I have an idea about what's going to happen. This chapter was also weird to write considering I've never written fights before, and being that this chapter was one huge fight, it took some time for me to make up. So again, I'm completely sorry and I'm going to shoot to get this next chapter out before the end of February (hopefully I can stick to that plan). Thank you reading my story and I hope you've enjoyed it so far.


	5. Uncle Hasta

**Uncle Hasta:**

"You gotta' powerful sword there m'boy!"

Jaune's eyes lit up at his uncle's praise. They stood in a meadow out in the woods behind the Arc's ancestral home, panting from their sparring match. The sun shined brightly down on the makeshift arena that was surrounded by overturned rocks, each one having a name etched into the surface of them. These names belonged to Jaune's ancestors who had become huntsmen or huntresses before his time, each one of the rocks kept a piece of the Arc legacy embroidered on it and each one of their names was facing inwards as to seem like they were watching him and his abilities as a fighter.

This place was sacred to his family: it was an Arc's right of passage into the ranks of the family's line of heroes to spar in the circle of rocks with one of his or her parents. This match was usually held right before a member of the Arc family moved on into a prestigious combat school, and since Jaune was about to go Beacon Academy once his semester at his current school was over, it was his time for his trial.

"You're sorta' stiff when defending but your attacking motions are lookin' good. Your training is comin' along well," his uncle said scratching his dark, scraggly beard. For having the Arc title, the man looked almost nothing like any of his family members. He only stood around five and a half feet tall making him shorter than even his mother and his hair was totally pitch black. He usually had his mop of a hairstyle hang down, reaching almost below his upper torso, but he had it tied back into a ponytail currently to avoid it getting in his way while he fought. From the back, it was almost impossible to tell if he was a woman or a man and it made for some pretty entertaining stories. Jaune recalled his uncle telling him about how he had been in Vale once and had gotten cat-called from a few construction workers that had been on break. He had told Jaune about how instead of turning around and beating the shit out of the idiots who had whistled for him, he had just turned around and blew a kiss at the baffled workers and yelled, "Hello boys!"

Those types of things were exactly why Jaune admired his uncle so much. He was always trying to find the humor in things. That wasn't a typical characteristic when people thought of huntsmen, and it would confuse his uncle's colleagues when he was getting mauled by a Beowolf and would continue to crack jokes. But that wasn't the only reason Jaune admired his uncle so much: the short man was one of the most skilled fighters he knew. Armed with only his signature spear, he had been able to hold off and beat Catherine and himself in a two-on-one matchup. There were also the stories from the various huntsmen and huntresses that cycled in and out of his house who would talk Jaune's ears off about how formidable his uncle was when he was out in the battlefield.

"I think you're just getting old, Uncle Hasta," Jaune said with a wry smile. Hastati put his hand on his chest in a mocking way with his mouth halfway open.

"What is up with your sister and you both calling me old?" The man laughed stabbing his spear, which he called Pila, into the ground and leaned against it. The thing was made simply with the shaft being made from silver Atlesian metal along with the spear tip being made from some kind of sturdy-blackened stone. The spear was scored by nicks from past battles and Jaune could faintly make out the number four etched into the middle of the shaft.

"It's not just me and Catherine," Jaune said also lowering his weapon, "Mom also calls you old."

"What? Bu' she was born before I was," Hastati's accent filled the Spring air and it resonated through the forest.

Jaune shrugged, "I'm just saying."

His uncle's confused look grew, "She also has more grey hair than I do—old man my ass." Hastati straightened himself and stretched his muscles a little. They had been out there for around two hours and the effects of fatigue were starting to creep up on the two. Jaune wasn't complaining though; and despite the fact that they were sparring, it was almost relaxing. His uncle was in and out and he couldn't remember a single bad memory when he was in his uncle's company, so any time spent with him was positive and he wouldn't trade it for the world. There was a certain connection to two had that surpassed even Jaune's connection with his sister, and even though their appearances differed immensely, they acted the exact same, which was something Jaune's mom found hilarious and would constantly tease them for.

Jaune's mind warped back to reality just in time to see his uncle pull his spear from the ground in preparation for another round of fighting. "When are you planning on leaving?" Jaune felt the words slip from his mouth as his eyes locked on Hastati who looked up from adjusting his weapon into its combat form.

"Tomorrow," Jaune's shoulders slightly slumped at the mention of his company leaving so early, "I got a couple of missions to complete for ol' Ozpin—bu' I'll be stationed in Vale for the Vytal Festival so I'll be back to see ya when the tournament begins."

"Stationed in Vale?" Jaune was confused. From what he had learned from other huntsmen, Ozpin's forces were very rarely drawn back to Vale because the students and teachers at Beacon were usually more than enough to fight off some Grimm and the occasional White Fang related crimes.

"Yeah, your sister and I both are gonna be in Vale along with Atlas military and a couple other huntsmen and huntresses," Hastati said brushing the few loose strands of hair that had escaped being tied back from his eyes. "Apparently something has Oz spooked and he doesn't wanna have all the people who are comin' to the tournament feeling scared, and I feel inclined to agree with him."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean to say that he's right to be afraid. The number of Grimm in Vale has been increasing and I've found myself fighting more of 'em than normal. I've come across more destroyed towns in this one year than I have in the past few years of being a huntsman and it's no coincidence," Hastati explained looking a little less cheerful than what he was typically like.

Jaune looked downwards and then back up to Hasta to contemplate what his uncle was afraid of. "What do you think is causing the Grimm to increase?"

Hasta shook his head remorsefully, " No tellin'—but what I can say is that something is brewing, and I rather be prepared than to have shit hit the fan without us there." Jaune nodded, slightly understanding what his uncle was telling him. He couldn't help but wonder about the places that would be affected by not having huntsmen around since the majority of them were being called back to the city of Vale. Wouldn't they just be left vulnerable? And what would scare Ozpin, the most powerful person in Vale, to the point where he would want the Atlas military protecting the city? These thoughts swirled around in Jaune's head and he didn't get to see his uncle's eyes soften at seeing him worried.

"Hey, don't worry yourself about that, let's jus' focus on making sure you're fit for Beacon, ye?" Jaune looked up and pulled himself away from the burden of worry. He smirked and unsheathed his sword, gripping the handle with both hands as his body adjusted to the significant amount of weight he was grappling with. He bent his knees to stabilize himself yet he still felt unsteady. His body was still trying to make sense of his new weapon. His uncle on the other hand gracefully twisted his spear around his body and pointed the bladed end towards Jaune. Years of training had left the man relaxed and focused on Jaune as his nephew's eyes darted around in preparation for him to run towards the huntsmen. However, Jaune's uncle stood still as if to coax Jaune into running at him. The sweat on both of their faces beaded, painting their expressions as the intensity between them grew.

Jaune's patience felt depleted as he felt himself start moving rapidly towards his target with his sword dragging behind slightly. Hasta took one step back and readied himself for Jaune's attack, he drew his spear back with him and then lunged forward to meet Jaune head on. Hasta's body glided through the air as his arm drew back and prepared itself to thrust the spearhead at Jaune. His nephew reacted haphazardly and shakily threw his sword above him to parry the attack. The clash of metal meeting metal rang out as Hasta's spear struck the broadsword with an intense amount of force. Jaune's body tumbled down and he slid on his knees as the middle-aged man soared over his head. Hasta landed elegantly by stabbing his spear into the ground and swinging around the length of the handle. Jaune slid his body around as well, mud and dirt flew up around him from the maneuver and he was left kneeling on the ground with his sword halfway into the ground to stop his body from moving.

Jaune looked up quickly, his bangs flying out of his eyes quick enough to see his uncle shoving a spear at his face. He leaned back and put up his pauldron to take the hit, pulling his sword from the ground in the process. The blade of the spear scrapped off Jaune's shoulder and he stuck his foot out to try and trip his uncle's passing figure. He should've known that his uncle wasn't going to be careless enough to trip over him and Hasta lithely sidestepped Jaune's leg. Jaune quickly felt the repercussions of his stupid attempt as Hasta's fist smashed into his face. The force behind the punch didn't feel malicious, but Jaune's vision faltered for a second as the rigged knuckles rammed into his nose. Jaune's head flew back from the hit and he tried to swing his sword in Hasta's direction, but he missed entirely as his temporary mentor who was already a safe distance away from him.

Hastati snapped his tongue and _tsked_ at Jaune's idiocy. "Way too slow," he said shaking his head. Jaune rubbed the side of his face and slowly felt his aura take effect as the searing pain subsided. "

"Ah, geez—Sorry, I forgot to remember that you're a damn bird," Jaune uttered still holding the side of his face. His uncle was known to be acrobatic when fighting and rather than rely on his strength, he put more into dodging attacks and punishing them which Jaune had just been painfully reminded of.

"So I'm not an ol' man anymore?" Hasta rested his chin on the blunt side of his weapon as he watched Jaune slowly stagger his way up from the dirt.

Jaune brushed the dirt off his jeans which was in vain as he had been shoved into the ground so many times in the past couple hours that the blue hue that had occupied his pants had become discolored. His shoes were in the same situation with his shoelaces completely brown instead of their typical white coloration. Jaune bent down and hoisted his sword onto his shoulder.

Hasta sighed as Jaune's body swiveled a little at the extreme weight being put on him. "Jaune, your skills in craftin' that thing are commendable," Hasta gestured towards his weapon, "But why the hell did you make a sword that weighs as much as you?" Jaune just stared at him, not making any kind of response. His gaze simply floated towards the weapon on his shoulders. Something about his eyes lost a bit of life staring at the sword. His somber expression carried back over to Hasta as Jaune's eyes bore into him. Jaune's expression quickly changed and he looked flustered after leaving his uncle unsettled.

"I just… felt like changing it up, you know?" Jaune stated with a brittle smile. Hasta had noticed Jaune's stance had become slightly unsteady at the mention of his sword; the topic had obviously made him uncomfortable, and Hasta could understand why. Ever since Eroe, his adoptive brother, had left with Crocea Mors strapped to his back, the entire Arc family, especially Jaune, had been tense. The topic of his brother didn't disappear completely, but there was an obvious mood change around the Arc's ancestral home. Memories of his childhood with Eroe came flooding back to him as the picture of his father training with his brother in this same arena. He remembered how Eroe had become the first Arc in the family's history to have beaten their father in one-on-one combat. That was the way Hasta remembered his brother: brutually perfect. His fighting abilities were absolutely astounding; he dared to say that he was the best swordsman in Remnant, and he had seen and fought many talented swordsmen in his day.

Hasta simply nodded, deciding against bringing up the topic, and he brought his spear in front of him. He angled his feet into their fighting stance and pointed the end of his spear at Jaune tauntingly. "Let's go again...and this time," Jaune waited in anticipation for his next comment, "try and not let me punch ye in ye face."

* * *

"You think he's dead?"

"Nora!" Ren scolded straightening from his crouched position over Jaune's unconscious body.

"What?" Nora held up her arms defensively. Jaune had passed out after the group had finished off the Beringel and hadn't responded to anything since. His sword was laying at the edge of the water with a faint white glow still emanating from where the shock crystal had been overcharged.

Ruby stood a little ways away clutching her hands in worry; Yang was a little ways behind her sitting on a rock refilling her weapon's ammo cartridges. The rest of them were hovering over Jaune looking at the torn up state he was in. Cuts and bruises littered his body and his left eye was swollen shut, his hoodie had been ripped up exposing his chest and torso underneath. The most concerning of part of his injuries though was his leg. Blood was pooling around the area and running down the sand creating crimson rivers flowing into and discoloring the pond.

Pyrrha, who was the least beaten up of the group, bent down and rested her hand on Jaune's shoulder. She closed her eyes and bowed her head as her aura temporarily glowed and then subsided with an exhausted sigh. "His aura is gone," Pyrrha said grimly standing back up.

Ruby's face became a bit more panicked at the tone of Pyrrha's voice. "Is—is he going to be okay?" Ruby shuffled her feet and her frown intensified. Any wound that Jaune had acquired from his fight with that monster Ruby had felt responsible for. She was the one that had made him stay back to fight the thing after all.

Pyrrha scratched her head in uncertainty, "...Maybe?" Anybody who could see the blond boy's condition would have probably come up with the exact same conclusion. The profuse amount of blood Jaune had lost would have been a death sentence for anyone without their aura unlocked, and now that he didn't have any left, it would only be a matter of time before he would bleed out.

"He must have pushed all of his aura into doing that," Blake said gesturing towards the broadsword. All of their eyes rested on the sword and the amount of craftsmanship went into creating the shimmering blade.

All of their attention was pulled away from gazing at Jaune's weapons towards the electronic voice emanating from their scrolls. "Twenty minutes remaining until evac departs. Proceed to the mark on your screens with haste or you will be left. Good luck." And with that, the feminine voice over the scroll's built-in intercom ceased and the group was left with silence.

Each of them turned to face each other inquisitively, heavy in contemplation about their next move. No one said a word as Jaune continued to lay unconscious on the ground bleeding, which was lessening but whether that was because of his blood clotting or him simply running out of it was impossible to tell. Yang sighed in irritation and stood up from reloading her weapon, "Well—we're getting nowhere by just thinking about what to do." She engaged Ember and Celica and walked up right behind Ruby.

Ren slightly nodded and motioned for Nora to help him carry Jaune. The two of them each grabbed an arm and hoisted his body up; both slid their arms under his legs and shoulders to support his weight. Ren's fingers came into contact with the upper portion of Jaune's wound and he slightly winced at its touch. "We need to hurry," Ren's stoic demeanor faltered a bit with this comment. Everyone unholstered their weapons and after Ruby grabbed Jaune's sword, they began to hastily trek towards evac.

The sun was peeking over the horizon with a threatening gaze that made them all move a bit faster. Ruby lingered at the back of the group, gazing at the unconscious boy being carried. Her face was grave and her eyes were a bit darker than when she had been dropped in the woods. She almost felt sick about what her actions had caused looking at the drops of blood splatter on the wilted leaves of the forest floor. Ruby averted her eyes from the scene in an attempt to calm herself and instead looked at the sword she was carrying. The weight of it was almost her own and she was struggling not to drag it along the ground, but she wasn't about to let anyone else carry the burden of having to lug it around: she felt obligated to be the one to have to do it.

"You need help there, sis?"

Ruby stumbled over herself; she hadn't realized that Yang had been hovering over her since the Beringel was killed.

"I-I'm fine," Ruby said trying to make her strain discreet as possible. She must've been doing a horrible job of that as Yang gave her a gaze that said she knew that Ruby was lying. Ruby sighed, "I did this to him." Ruby gestured towards Jaune who looked as if he was mumbling something in his unconscious state.

"What do you mean? Ruby, you're not—"

"I ran ahead of my group and was attacked by a Grimm that fell on top of me and trapped me," Ruby looked down to the ground shamefully, "Jaune wouldn't have had to fight that thing if I hadn't gotten stuck. This is my fault." Ruby's usually cheerful tone was no longer and it pained Yang to hear her sister in this state. Yang didn't know how to respond, she knew her sister was a bit eccentric and could get herself into some pretty bad situations, but none of them had ever affected her this much; then again, none of them had endangered anyone else greatly.

Yang put a comforting arm around Ruby and pulled her slightly into her. After several moments of silence between the two, Yang finally found her words, "It was Jaune's fault that he got hurt."

Ruby flipped her head around and looked at her sister wide-eyed as if even she was insulted by Yang's comment.

"What? I mean—he could've kept going—but he didn't, so that's on him and not you."

Ruby shook her head, "But—but he stayed behind because I made a mistake."

"Yes, and that was his decision, not yours." Ruby clearly did not get what Yang was getting at as she continued to become more confused at each statement the brawler made. Yang tried to clarify what she meant, "What I'm saying is that _he_ choose to stay behind and help you and he accepted the risks of staying with you. And while I'm grateful for what he did for you, it was still Jaune who made that choice." Yang loosened he grip on Ruby's shoulder.

"I just—"

"What you did was stupid, but don't think for a second that you did this to him," Yang said looking ahead. Ruby still felt responsible despite what her sister had told her. However, something about Yang's demeanor made Ruby feel a bit better and added a little strength to her step. "Now give me that sword." Yang grabbed the sword out of Ruby's hands and rested the blade gently on her shoulder. Ruby pursed her lips in opposition but secretly felt thankful for not having the massive weight of Jaune's sword dragging her down.

The sisters stayed relatively quiet as the rest of the group members seemed to talk amongst themselves. Weiss was apparently pretty interested in Pyrrha as the pale girl asked unrelenting questions. Nora was chatting at a disorienting pace and Ren simply focused on moving Jaune efficiently as he nodded his head periodically. Blake was off to the side of the group and looked as if she was trying to avoid being evolved in any conversation. From the looks of it, they were going to make it to salvation with a couple minutes to spare and Jaune was still hanging in there, so any fear of something happening to them washed away as new voices sounded through the forest as they approached evac. Just before they broke the treeline into the outcropping that symbolized their evac, Yang's curiosity got the best of her as she turned towards Ruby.

"Soooo if Jaune was the only one that fought the Beringel, then what happened to the rest of your group?" Yang almost feared the answer to that question.

"Oh—uh, well—they sort of—uh...ran past me," Ruby said with restraint. She inwardly cringed as the only thing that followed up her statement was an eerie silence.

"...They did what?"

* * *

There was a large congregation of students resting in the middle of the clearing, various colored bands resting on each of their arms. All of them showed signs of exhaustion and some even were nursing wounds that they had gotten from their respective excursions. Several conversations had been started among the future students as each knew that they had passed their first test at Beacon, and what a test it had been. According to the groups that had made it out of the forest intact, they had all encountered an enlarged Grimm, and if the number of students in the clearing said anything, they had all had their fair share of problems in defeating it.

Cardin stood in the middle of all of them and was telling several bystanders how he and his other three companions had faced a Beringel and had barely managed to escape. Sky, Dove, and Russel all looked on with a hint of regret as they stayed relatively silent. They hadn't been proud of what they did, yet they were not about to tell everyone about what _really_ happened out in that forest. That was something that they had had an unspoken agreement to not utter to anyone.

Two other groups had mentioned how they had heard the Beringel and a girl screaming and that a couple of their members had fallen back to help whoever was in trouble. Cardin nodded at their claims and quickly made up a story of Ruby couldn't keep up with him and had, unbeknownst to himself, fallen behind. Dove held his head low in shame when the people around him nodded along with Cardin's recounting of the ordeal.

Some murmuring at the edge of the circle that had been made around the four armored teenagers drew the attention away from Cardin.

"Hey? What's goin on?" Cardin's question was left unanswered as everyone continued to stare back at the forest.

After a few more seconds of being left in suspense, a light-blue haired guy holding an Atlesian shotgun spoke up, "Did the girl you left happen to have blonde hair?"

"What?" The guy pointed towards the surrounding group's point of interest.

Cardin stood up and towered over everyone else's heads. He squinted his eyes at the approaching blonde blur storming out of the forest. "What is that?" He squinted harder. "...Oh shit."

* * *

Yang came careening out of the forest with a ferocity that mirrored that of an Ursa. The ground seemed to shake harder and harder as her foot collided with the ground. Her eyes had shaken their usual lilac color for a blood red hue that made Cardin slightly shiver. But what made him even more afraid was who she was with.

Ruby walked with Weiss, Blake, and Pyrrha behind Jaune, who had opened his eyes slightly but still kept deadly quiet, as if his silence mitigated the pain he must've felt in his leg. They had actually made it with a few moments to spare, which was partly due to Yang's accelerated pace. Ever since Ruby had told her about Cardin's actions, Yang had been absent to Ruby's pleas to not be too angry. She knew her sister wasn't going to take the news that Jaune had been the only one to stay behind amazingly, but she hadn't anticipated that Yang would uproot several trees before marching towards the evac point with steam coming out of her nose.

Yang finally stopped moving when she came up to the wall of students that stood in her path, which gave time for Ruby and the rest of them to catch up to her.

"Which was one of you is Cardin!?" Her question came out with an intensity that made one or two of the bystanders to hold their weapons close to their chests in fear.

The group quickly parted to allow for a pathway to be made towards the four dumbfounded boys in the middle. Yang clenched her fists and resumed her marching in their direction.

Dove, Sky, and Russel backed up a little while Cardin just stood there trying to fathom how Jaune and Ruby had survived. He wasn't able to connect the dots before Yang had planted herself right in front of him.

She looked up at his face before letting out in a low tone, "You Cardin?"

"Uhhhh—... yeah—"

As soon as the word 'yeah' came out of Cardin's mouth, Yang's leg shot up in a kick. A high pitch squeal emanated from the brute as he dropped to his knees in pain. A collective 'oof' came from the crowd and the boys, all of them knowing just how badly _that_ must've hurt. Cardin became small as Yang now towered over him, she grabbed the top of his cuirass, pulling him to where he came nose-to-nose with her.

"If you _**ever**_ come near my sister again," Yang took a large breath in, "I...will...end you!"

Cardin nodded his head to the best of his ability before Yang forced the rest of his body down to the ground. She now aimed his eyes towards the other three boys who were petrified by what they had just seen.

"Got it?!" Each of them nodded as well, none of them wanting to suffer the same fate as the groaning guy sprawled out on the ground.

Ruby's wide eyes were drawn away from the scene as the sound of laughter came from next to her. She turned around to see Nora laughing hysterically at what she had just seen. A half-conscious Jaune, who was draped over Ren and Nora's shoulders now, along with Ren looked mortified. Yang strode back over to them leaving the trio to help Cardin to his feet. They all stared at her with a myriad of expressions.

She looked at them confused, "He deserved it."

"Well, yeah—but I thought you were just going to punch him in the face? Not—not _that_." Jaune's horror slowly morphed into humor as he stared at Yang.

"It wouldn't have made a lasting impression."

Yang walked past Jaune and Ren and back over to the side of Ruby. The scythe-wielder stared up at her sister. Yang noticed Ruby's long stare and laid a hand on her shoulder. "I got your back sis," Yang said smiling down at Ruby. The young girl was unresponsive at first but then allowed for a small smile to come to her face. The group that had gathered had quickly dispersed following the Cardin incident and had broken into their own little factions now just waiting for a ship to pick them up and take them back to Beacon.

"His poor girlfriend," Jaune said watching Cardin hobble away.

"I can affirm that no girl would want that," Blake spat in disgust.

* * *

The sound of the airship's engines calmed Jaune's nerves as he sat with his leg suspended across the aisle of seats. The pain had slowly died down after the medical crew that was aboard the ship had given him some medication to numb the area. They had decided against trying to stitch up the wound due to its severity but had also mentioned that it should heal up after a couple weeks, which pleased Jaune to no end. His leg hadn't looked great out in the darkness of the forest and he had feared that it was going to need to be amputated. He was glad that his prognosis was proven false and that he would be back to normal before long.

He gazed around at the seats near him and watched as the people that had saved his and Ruby's lives. Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha sat on his right talking about something that he couldn't quite decipher. Something about a Mistral champion or something? To his left were Yang, Ruby, Weiss, and Blake who were also talking fairly intently. Jaune had a lot to thank for these people and how they had shown up when they had. He had pretty much accepted the idea of him dying with the state he had been in and was just hoping to allow Ruby some time to escape, which wasn't even going to happen with what Ruby had said transpired after Jaune had left her.

Yang noticed Jaune's prolonged stare and sighed. She shifted herself over to the seat adjacent to his all the while trying to stay aware of his leg. Jaune simply watched her as she rubbed the back of her hand waiting for the words to come to her.

"So Ruby told me about what you did in that forest and how you tried to help her," Yang said leaning in a little so that none of the others would hear their conversation. "Thank you for looking out for her. If it hadn't been for you, then she wouldn't be here right now, and I can't live with the idea of a world without her."

Jaune shrugged, "She did the same exact thing for me during that fight, so I would say that we're even." He touched his sword, which Yang had given back to him once they had boarded the ship. The shock crystal had reverted to its natural resting state and the glow that had veined up its surface was no longer there.

Yang's attention was also drawn to the blade. Her mind flashed back to the bright light that had erupted from the sword back at the pond and how it essentially evaporated what had been left of the Beringel following their firing squad attack. "How did you activate that crystal?" Jaune looked back up at her with a questioning look. "My uncle used to talk about activating crystals with aura and how the process was pretty complicated."

"Yeah—how exactly did _you_ do that?" Weiss's verbal incursion cause both Yang and Jaune to look towards her.

Jaune just shrugged again, "I don't know." He had heard about some aura manipulation techniques like pushing aura into crystals to activate them was something that took a significant amount of time to develop, but something about the whole process just came so naturally to him. He knew his mother was also pretty talented in the way of aura manipulation, so he would usually just trace it back to genetics and leave it at that.

"You don't know?" Jaune shook his head. Weiss's face scrunched up in disdain as that answer had apparently not satisfied her interest. "Then how did you do it on command when we were facing that-that thing?" Jaune searched around with his eyes a little before just settling on another simple shrug. "You cannot be serious?"

Instead of shrugging again, Jaune just opted to sit and stare at her. This girl was beautiful. He had noticed this back to when he had first encountered her, but now that they were just sitting and didn't have to deal with any sort of Grim, he could see just how beautiful she really was. Jaune opened his mouth to speak and Weiss leaned in waiting for some kind of response, but what she got was something completely different.

"Sooo—are you, like, seeing anyone or what's the situation with that?" Weiss stared blankly at Jaune before forming a face that was nothing short of insulted.

"Did you _really_ just ask me if I was single or not?" Jaune nodded. Weiss scoffed, "I'll have you know that I am the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and am not someone you can just win over because of some light show made by a sword!"

…

"I'm unclear, is that a 'yes' or a 'no'?"

Weiss made a frustrated 'humph' sound before turning away from Jaune again. He looked back towards Yang who was just shaking her head at what she had just witnessed.

"What?" Yang just continued to shake her head and returned to her seat next to Ruby; though Jaune did notice the small smile that had crept onto the edge of her mouth.

* * *

"Now you're fighting!" Hasta yelled as he was forced back from the streaks of white lighting that struck his spear. Jaune had pushed his aura into his sword in an effort to drive his uncle back and gain the ground he had lost in their skirmish thus far, and for the most part, it was working. Hasta was put on the defensive with each heavy swing that Jaune threw his way. The crackling of electricity was a constant at this point with Jaune deciding to hold nothing back and use his aura to gain the advantage.

Jaune contorted his wrist and threw a forward slash followed quickly by another one. Hasta's quick movements allowed for him to easily slide back across the dirt to avoid each successive slice. He knew what his nephew was doing and needed to try and not give away any kind of ground that he had gained throughout the fight. Jaune lifted his sword high above his head and threatened to bring it down on Hasta, but the sheer weight caused the move to be sluggish, which gave Hasta the opportunity to raise his spear above his head. Jaune's sword and Hasta's spear connected after Jaune's thrust and a ringing sounded from the two weapons clashing. Jaune's electricity continued to spark as both of them grunted trying to hold the other back.

Hasta planted his foot into the ground and pushed upwards, slowly pushing the sword opposing it upwards as well. Hasta let go of one side of his spear and stepped to the side, which made Jaune stumble forward and clash with the ground.

Hasta clicked his tongue, "Ye had me on the ropes Jaune and ya just let it go." Jaune shook himself and stumbled up off the ground, brushing off his jeans in the process.

"I did better than the last hundred times though."

"That you did, m'boy," chuckled Hasta stumbling over to Jaune and patting him on the back. They had agreed to stop for the day after this match and get back to the Arc's house before Jaune's mother came out and killed them both. Jaune stretched his back and several audible pops could be heard as he leaned back. He was sore from the all-day training session, but something about him felt better than ever. He couldn't quite place it but it didn't matter to him as he picked up his sword and put it in its sheath. Hasta clipped his own weapon to his back and let out a long breath of exhaustion.

The sun was beginning to hide behind the horizon and crickets had started to chirp, making the entire forest into a sort of symphony. Jaune absorbed his surrounding and his eyes rested on a particular rock in the circle that laid on the outskirts of the arena. Unknowingly, Jaune moved towards the rock's area and kneeled down in front of it.

"Hey, Jaune! I was thinkin' maybe I could stay for another day jus' to get ya ready for Bea…" Hasta trailed off as he noticed Jaune's absence from his side. He looked around until his eyes rested on his nephew who was staring intently at the rock that held a name he knew all too well. He slowly glided over to where Jaune was and kneeled down beside him. Hasta knew he was not the best at giving emotional advice, so he just opted to scratch his beard and then resting his hand on Jaune's shoulder. The two sat there in silence simply gazing at the name etched into the rock. It was a peaceful moment between uncle and nephew and both of them basked in each other's silent company.

"You think he's okay?" Jaune asked ending the silence that had taken hold of the area.

Hasta glanced over towards the expressionless face of his nephew. "Your father? Are you kidding? He wouldn't let anything hurt him," Hasta said reassuringly. However, he didn't know is that was what Jaune wanted to hear because the boy's face only scrunched up at his comment. Jaune's eyes seemed to long for something that was out of his reach and it made Hasta feel awful. He hated seeing Jaune like this. His words were going to help nothing at this point, so he tightened his grip on Jaune's shoulder.

"Stay strong m'boy."

* * *

 **[Author's Note]**

 **I promise I did not forget about this story (yet again) and apologize (yet again) for being so late with this update. It really makes me angry that I couldn't get myself to just write this chapter and there is no excuse other than I'm lazy. All in all, writing this chapter was difficult for some reasons that will hopefully make sense later and that I can't really go into without spoiling some things. So there are still probably a lot of questions concerning Cardin and Jaune and what exactly will come from their actions from the previous chapter and I promise that those questions will be answered in the next chapter. The main point of this chapter wasn't even to wrap up the initiation segment, but to bring Hasta into the story. I have a lot of things I want to do with him as a character so that was my main focus and if some of the segments with RWBY and JNPR felt a bit rushed, then that's the reason. I actually want to start attacking the narrative that I want to take with this story in the upcoming chapters, so with that in mind I kind of want to end of by saying that the next chapter is coming (I promise).**


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